
Qass r?.y 

Book ^(oTi 



^ 



PRESENTED BY 



Bgamenticu6, BrietoU 
(SotQeana, l^ork 

AN ORATION 

DEI<IVERED BY THE 

Hon. JAMES PHINNEY BAXTER, 

President of the Maine Historicai, Society 

IN 

YORK, MAINE, 

ON THE 

Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
of the Town, 

Together with a Brief History of York and a Descriptive 
Account of the Celebration of this Anniversary, 

WITH A 
COMPLKTE) InDKX of NaMKS AND HISTORIC EVEJNTS 

AUOUST 5, 1902 




Published by the Old York Historical and 

Improvement Society, York, Maine 

1904 



Bfbst'ks iprintina Ibouse, 
Iportland, ^e. 



P. 

Society. 



Contents 



Officers of Oi,d York Historicai, and Improvement 

Society, ....... i 

Announcement, ...... 2 

Preface, ........ 3 

Fi,AG of Massachusetts Bay Colony, by Barbour Lath- 

rop, ........ 7 

Historical Address, delivered by James P. Baxter — 

Agamenticus, Bristol, Gorgeana, York, . . 9 
Historical Sketch of York, by Frank D. Marshall, 34 
Program of the Celebration of the 250TH Anniver- 
sary of the Town of York, Aug. 3RD and 5Th, 1902, 83 
Card of Invitation, ...... 91 

Guests Present at Exercises Aug. sth, 1902, . . 92 

Persons who Took Part in Historic Tableaux, . 94 

Commemorative Exercises on Village Green, . . 96 

Address by Hon. Edward C. Moody, ... 96 
Remarks by Mr. Walter M. Smith, President of the 

Day, ........ 97 

Citizens' Welcome, by Hon. John C. Stewart, . 99 

Address by Gen. Joshua L,. Chamberlain, . . . 104 

Address by President Tucker, of Dartmouth College, 108 

Remarks by Hon. Thomas B. Reed, . . . no 
Address by Francis Lynde Stetson, Esq., . . .111 

Address by Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, . . • 113 

Remarks by Mr. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), . 119 
Reception to Maine Historical Society at Coventry 

Hall, 121 

Sketch of the Congregational Churches and Minis- 
ters of York, a Paper Read by the Rev. Sidney 

K. Perkins, ...•••• i" 




■y^M ''^ 



©fffcers 



OF THE 

®l^ 13ork Ibtstortcal an^ Umprovcment Socteti?, 



President : 
The Rev. FRANK SEWALL, D. D., Washington, D. C. 

Vice Presidents: 

First— WALTER M. SMITH, Esq., Stamford, Conn. 
Second— CapT. JOHN DENNETT, York, Me. 
Third— Mrs. THATCHER LORING, Brookline, Mass. 
Fourth— THOMAS NELSON PAGE, LiTT. D., Washington, D. C. 
Fifth- Mrs. GEORGE L. CHENEY, Ncav York City. 

Secretary and Treasurer : 
Miss FLORENCE A. PAUL, York, Me. 

Board of Directors: 

BRYAN LATHROP, Esq., Chicago, Ills. 

FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON, Esq., New York City. 

Hon. EDWARD O. EMERSON, Titusville, Pa. 

Mrs. ELIZABETH BURLEIGH DAVIDSON, York, Me. 

Mrs. MARY S. PERKINS, New York City. 

LOCKWOOD De forest, Esq., New York City. 

Miss MATTIE O. BARRELL, York, Me. 

Curator of the Oi,d Gaol Museum: 
Miss SOPHIA TURNER, York, Me. 



Hnnouncemcnt 



The Board of Dire<5lors of the Old York Historical and 
Improvement Society appointed, at a meeting held in Septem- 
ber, 1902, a committee, consisting of the Rev. Frank Sewall, 
D. D., President of the Society, Frank D. Marshall, Esq., of 
Portland, and Miss Ellen Dennett, of York, to publish the 
oration of the Hon. James P. Baxter delivered at the recent 
Anniversary Celebration, together with a brief history of the 
Town of York, and an account in detail of the celebration, on 
August 5th, of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of 
the organization of the Town of York. Mr. Marshall in pre- 
paring the historical account has drawn largely from the 
valuable records compiled by his grandfather, the late Hon. 
Nathaniel G. Marshall ; Miss Dennett has rendered valuable 
aid through her accurate knowledge of biographical and 
personal details. The committee are indebted to the officers 
and speakers at the celebration for the kindly furnished 
photographs and abstracts of remarks ; and for generous aid in 
publication given by the Seledtmen of York, by Mr. Francis 
Lynde Stetson, and by Mr. Walter M. Smith. It is hoped 
that the volume will prove a contribution of value to our local 
history, and a pleasant souvenir for those who participated in 
the celebration which it commemorates. 

Frank Sewai,1v. 

CovBNTRY Hall, August 31, 1903. 



(preface 



The purpose of this little volume is to preserve in lasting 
form the events in the observance of the two hundred and 
fiftieth year of the incorporation of the Town of York, Maine. 
Besides the anniversary oration of the Hon. James P. Baxter, 
the editing committee has also inserted an article, which is 
simply intended to mark certain cardinal points in the town's 
history, in order that those who are not familiar with it may 
gain the general information necessary to an appreciation of 
the events celebrated on August 3rd and 5th, 1902. 

The commemoration exercises were fittingly begun on Sun- 
day evening, August 3rd, by a union service held in the old 
First Parish meeting-house. A congregation which com- 
pletely filled the church listened to the impressive exercises. 
"Early Religious lyife and Customs" was the subjedl of the 
address to be delivered by Rev. Elihu Snow. Unfortunately 
Mr. Snow could not be present, and the Rev. Mr. Perkins 
read the paper. Mr. Snow most instru(5lively told of the 
peculiar and hard conditions under which our forefathers 
worshipped God. He praised the piety and simple faith of 
the godly men of early New England days; and, while 
thankful for the reasonable liberality and unity which the 
years have developed, he regretted the loss of much which 
charadterized these men. Rev. Mr. Abbott, of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and Rev. Mr. Goss, of the Christian 
church, sketched the beginning and development of their 
respective denominations. Although both churches are now 
approaching a hundred years of life, and both, from their 
inception to the present, have numbered within their fold 

3 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

their full proportion of the men and women who have served 
well the town, yet necessarily neither denomination as a body 
corporate had those close relations with the old municipality 
of York which the First Parish (Congregational) possessed, 
dating its existence back to the year 1662. The Rev. Sidney 
K. Perkins told of the Congregational churches of York, and 
of their pastors. His paper appears in full in this volume. 
An interesting feature of this service was the singing of the 
favorite hymns and anthems of the olden time, including 
"Strike the Cymbal" and "Jerusalem, My Happy Home." 
The benedi(5lion was pronounced by the Rev. Frank Sewall, 
D. D., of Washington, D. C, ancestrally connedted with 
Shubael Dummer, the first pastor of the parish of York, who 
was massacred by the Indians in 1692. 

Tuesday, August 5th, was announced by the firing of a 
sunrise salute from the old Palo Alto cannon, and by the 
ringing of the church bells. At ten o'clock the procession 
was formed, consisting of United States Marines ; the histori- 
cal tableaux on floats ; the York Volunteer Fire Company, 
created a military organization for the occasion and author- 
ized to bear arms by courtesy of His Excellency, John F. 
Hill, Governor of Maine, costumed and representing Captain 
Johnson Moulton's Company of Volunteers, 1775; the floral 
and trades floats, and the school children of York, in all 
forming a procession of more than half a mile in length. 

Hotels, private residences, and stores along the route of 
the procession, and as far as York Corner, were appropriately, 
and in many instances elaborately, decorated with flags and 
bunting, amid which could frequently be discerned the 
restored first ensign of New England, showing the red cross 
and the pine tree. Few, indeed, were the buildings along 

4 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



the four miles of highway traversed which did not have some 
bit of color in honor of the day. 

The route of the procession was from York Beach to York 
Harbor; thence to the village. The historical part of the 
pageant alone required the appropriate costuming of a hun- 
dred individuals, from King's courtiers and Colonial officers, 
in full regimentals, to sombre Puritans. The general excel- 
lence of the whole parade was the result of much labor by the 
committee having it in charge, together with the willingness 
of the many participants to expend time and money in prep- 
aration. 

On this day was hoisted over the Old Jail the flag designed 
after the ancient flag of New England, bearing the red cross 
and the pine tree. The original design bore in the centre of 
the cross the monogram of the crown, with the letters J. R. 
for Jacobus Rex. The drawing is from authentic records in 
the British State Paper Office in L,ondon, and the design, 
with the King James II monogram restored, appears on the 
title page of this volume. This flag, together with the large 
American flag on the main flagstaff of the building, were the 
generous gifts, in honor of the day, of Mr. Walter M. Smith, 
the President of the Old York Historical and Improvement 
Society. 

In the early afternoon there gathered around the old Court- 
house on the village green, in the clear, bracing air of a per- 
fedl August day, an assemblage numbering into the thou- 
sands. It represented not only all that is best in an old and 
thrifty New England community, but also many hundreds of 
summer residents coming from every sedtion of the Union. 
Upon the platform ereded in the shade of the old building 
was grouped as distinguished a gathering of men as perhaps 

5 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



ever came together, in this generation at least, for a like occa- 
sion in any New England town. Here were spoken the last 
public words of Thomas B. Reed. Almost unannounced he 
quietly came among his friends, those who were his official, 
professional and social associates in Washington and in New 
York, and those who for so many years were proud of him as 
their representative from the old First Distri<5l of Maine. He 
spoke only too briefly— a chara^eristic, humorous excuse for 
what he termed an intrusion; an allusion to his friend the 
great humorist, which was later to arouse and turn the wit of 
Mr. Clemens upon Mr. Reed, and then a few comprehensive 
words of almost unwonted soberness upon the nobility and 
responsibilities of citizenship. Kxadl words may be forgot- 
ten, but their import must remain fresh in the minds of scores 
of listeners. 

The memorable day closed with an aerial display of fire- 
works and a water carnival on Lake Gorges. The heavy 
clouds which overhung the water refleded the hundreds of 
vari-colored lights and rendered the display doubly attra^ive 
to the hundreds of spedators who gathered upon the shore 
and along the old mill dam. 

This commemoration day, so singularly beautiful, and, to 
quote the words there delivered by the distinguished edu- 
cator, "uncovering the human side of this old town which in 
its quality and tone matches so well its setting in sea and 
sky," cannot but have enduring influence for good in the 
community, stimulating a healthy pride in this old munici- 
pality which has a beginning unique in American history, 
and which has held an honorable place among the old New 
England towns for two and a half centuries. 

Frank D. Marshall,. 
6 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Zbe f laa of flDaeeacbusette 3Bai? Colony 

Mr. Barbour lyathrop has kindly furnished the Old York 
Historical and Improvement Society with the result of his 
researches in relation to the earliest flag of New England as 
follows : 

"The first mention I could find of a special flag for the 
New England Colonies was copied from documents in the 
British State Paper Office, which is given with a drawing of 
the flag. 

"It says: 'The New England ensign in 1686 was a white 
ground with broad red cross and a golden crown over a 
golden monogram.' My rude copy of the letters is this, 
(J. R.). The flag was something like this. (Here is given 
a drawing corresponding to the design on the cover of this 
book.) 

"In 1704, and again in 1705, mention is made of 'the 
ensign of New England' as follows : 

" 'A red ground with a jack of white ground with a red 
cross' (as above) 'and a half globe in upper pole square of 
white.' 

"Preble, in his 'History of the Flag of the United States,' 
says : 'This was undoubtedly the earliest symbol of a union 
of the colonies.' 

"In 1737 a French book upon flags of different countries 
gives a pi<flure of 'The New England ensign,' with the 
design the same as the one mentioned above, with a change 

7 



TWO HUNDRKD AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



of color for the ground, to blue, and a full globe instead of a 



half one, thus 




"A pine tree was a favorite emblem of Massachusetts, and 
was used on coins minted as early as 1652. This pine tree, 
represented in green, replaced the globe of the jack of the 
New England ensign at some unknown date. But it was 
the flag flown over the American breastworks at the battle of 
Bunker Hill, as proved by credible eyewitnesses. The pine 
tree was green. With apologies for untutored drawing, 

I Barbour IvAThrop." 





Hon. James P. Baxter, 
Portland, Maine. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Hoamentfcus, Bristol, 
(Boroeana, J^orh. 



Address Deuvered on the 250TH Anniversary of 
THE Town of York, August 5Th, 1902. 

By JAMES PHINNEY BAXTER. 

Two hundred and fifty years ago a town was born. Today 
we greet it. It was born amid confusion and tumult ; it 
lives in peace and prosperity. Two hundred and fifty years 
is but a fleeting moment on the dial of time ; but with us, 
children of men, it comprises many generations and involves 
the precious experiences of many human lives. We regard 
such antiquity with respect ; we bow to it with reverence. 
We go back and with the eye of imagination look upon it as 
it was in the beginning ; primeval forests frowning upon the 
shores of an eternal sea ; wild glades tracked only by savage 
man and savage beast ; skies blue and bright as now, brood- 
ing over vast solitudes, whose silence seemingly is never to 
be broken by the restless spirit of achievement. Such was 
this scene upon which we look today not long anterior to the 
natal day of the Town of York. But ambitious souls, with 
the quickened vision of seers, had pierced the mists of the 
great ocean, unexplored and unknown, which hid from com- 
mon sight the western world. Cabot had set foot on the for- 

9 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

bidding shores of t<abrador; Cartier had mingled with the 
strange men of Hochelaga ; Popham had knelt with Christian 
devotion beneath the ancient oak of Sabino, and Smith, after 
adventurous voyages along the perilous shores of North 
Virginia, had returned to England to tell to eager listeners of 
the deledlable country to which he gave the name of New 
England, entitled by a later writer the New English Canaan, 
a land flowing with milk and honey. Among the earliest 
who had taken an interest in western colonization was Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, related through the Champernouns to 
Gilbert and Raleigh, who had won distinction in England's 
wars with Spain, and was anxious to see English power estab- 
lished in the New World, which Spain and France, unloved 
by loyal Englishmen, were regarding with greedy eyes. He 
was interested in the Great Charter of James, and in the voy- 
ages of Pring, Popham, Dermer, Rowcroft and others, to 
these shores, and for his persistent efforts to colonize them 
has been happily denominated the Father of American Col- 
onization. In this man the Town of York is particularly 
interested, since it was his dream to make here a great city, 
the chosen seat of governmental, religious and commercial 
power, which was to dominate his Province of Maine. Just 
when the pioneer settler eredled his cabin upon the wild 
banks of the "Organug," now the York river, no record 
reveals, nor may we ever know his name. For a long time 
before the history of this region begins, waifs from many 
lands, rough fishermen, covetous adventurers, and social out- 
casts of all kinds, scattered here and there along the sea 
coast and contiguous river banks, living as best they could 
upon the spoil of sea and wood, and disappeared leaving no 
vestige of their lives behind. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



"Lost 'mid the shadows of the eternal past 
Which thought explores in vain." 

No part of the coa.st of Maine offered greater attradlions for 
such waifs than this, and knowing that a century before the 
date of the birth of York, scores of vessels annually visited 
the more inhospitable coasts of Newfoundland and I^abrador, 
we may properly believe that these shores so alluring and 
profitable were visited and occupied at the same period. Yet 
it is not until 1639, the year of the date of Gorges' Charter 
of the Province of Maine, that the history of this region 
really becomes distindl. There were many settlers here at 
that time, some who had come over seas to fish and had con- 
cluded to remain in the country to pursue their vocation; 
some, who desiring to obtain land for husbandry, had emi- 
grated from the older colony of Massachusetts Bay, and 
others who had probably wandered hither without any well 
defined purpose. These formed a heterogeneous population 
of ill assorted elements, and being without any real order of 
government, were turbulent and disorderly. Such was the 
condition of affairs when Sir Ferdinando was awarded his 
charter of the Province for which he had labored for many 
years, and assumed financial burdens. This charter merits 
one consideration, inasmuch as it confers almost regal power 
upon the grantee ; indeed, in the history of American 
charters it may be regarded as unique. Permit me to briefly 
outline some of its extraordinary features. The grantee was 
empowered to build, dedicate and consecrate churches accord- 
ing to the laws ecclesiastical of England, and to control the 
patronage of all churches in the established Province, and 
further, he was endowed with all the rights, privileges, and 
prerogatives which the Bishop of Durham, one of the most 



l.of 0. 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

powerful bishops in England, could exercise in his bishopric. 
Thus the entire ecclesiastical machinery of the Province was 
entrusted to the guidance of one man. But this, extraordi- 
nary as it may seem, is but a part of this remarkable instru- 
ment. By it the grantee was given full power to pardon 
offenders against the laws of the Province ; to raise and main- 
tain troops to enforce his power and to execute martial law 
upon those who resisted his authority. It would indeed be 
difficult to frame a charter conferring larger powers upon an 
individual than this charter conferred upon Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges. Having accomplished what he himself tells us he 
had been laboring for under a burden of trouble and at great 
expense during forty years of the best portion of his life, 
which, it is well to notice, carries us back to the year 1599 as 
the initial point of his interest in American colonization, he 
proceeded to develop his scheme of government. The plan 
adopted was fashioned after Saxon models, which had existed 
in England from remote times. First he divided the Province 
into eight bailiwicks, and these into "sixteen several hun- 
dreds," subdividing the latter into "parishes and tithings as 
people did increase." 

A board of councillors was then formed consisting of Sir 
Thomas Josselyn ; Richard Vines, the founder of Bidde- 
ford ; Francis Champernoun, the nephew of Gorges ; Henry 
Josselyn, then residing at Black Point; Richard Bonython, 
the founder of Saco ; William Hooke and Edward Godfrey. 
Subsequently he substituted in place of Sir Thomas Josselyn 
his cousin, Thomas Gorges, a young barrister, whom he made 
his deputy governor and entrusted with the office of Secretary 
and Keeper of the Province Seal. His "Ordinances for the 
better government" of Maine provided for a chancellor for 



OF THK TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



determining rights of property ; a treasurer for the receipt of 
the public revenue ; a marshal of militia ; a judge, marshal, 
and officers of the marshal's court ; an admiral with his lieu- 
tenant, or judge, to determine maritime causes ; a master of 
the ordnance, whose office it was to take charge of the public 
stores belonging to the militia for sea and land, and a secre- 
tary for the service of the Governor and Council. To his 
councillors were added eight deputies, to be elecfled by the 
freeholders of the several counties, as councillors for the 
state of the country, who were authorized to sit in the courts, 
established in the Province, "and to be assistants to the presi- 
dents thereof, and to give opinions according to justice." 
As though to deprive settlers of the last shred of liberty, no 
sale of land was valid unless the consent of the council was 
first procured. What a door was here opened for abuse ! 
But we must remember that this was in the closing years of 
the reign of Charles the First, when royal power was attain- 
ing its climax, and royal disregard of the rights of the people 
was preparing the way for revolution, as it subsequently did 
with such terrible results in France. But I must not burden 
you with further details of the elaborate scheme devised by 
Sir Ferdinando for the government of Maine, but proceed to 
review events which followed the setting up of his govern- 
mental machinery. The initial adl of the new government 
was the establishment of a court at Saco on the 25th of June, 
1640, which was declared to be for the preservation of justice 
throughout the Province. Owing to the lawless condition of 
affairs which had prevailed in the Province promotive of dis- 
putes and misunderstandings among the settlers, the court 
found plenty of business to occupy it. In due time, the 
deputy governor, Thomas Gorges, arrived in the Province. 

13 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Very wisely he had stopped on the way to make the acquaint- 
ance of the Massachusetts magistrates, and to ask their 
advice relative to the best methods of procedure to be adopted 
in setting his government in motion. In this he had been so 
successful as to secure the commendation of Winthrop, which 
speaks well for his diplomacy. He had been informed before 
leaving home, and without doubt corre<5tly, that Massachu- 
setts, through her agents in London, was attempting to per- 
suade the king to hinder his designs as she was apprehensive 
that he might be employed to regulate her own affairs ; 
besides, he knew that many of the settlers in Maine were call- 
ing upon Massachusetts to establish order in Maine, "as if," 
Sir Ferdinando somewhat impatiently says, "they alone were 
the supreme lords of that part of the world." It must, there- 
fore, have been with considerable satisfacflion that he departed 
from Boston with the consciousness of having secured a good 
understanding with Governor Winthrop. He was met upon 
his arrival at Bristol, the name which had supplanted that of 
Agamenticus, with a severe disappointment. A mansion, 
large and imposing for the time and place, had been eredled 
for him on the bank of the Organug and furnished in a style 
befitting the dignity of the expe<5led governor, but, owing to 
the prevalent lawlessness, had been nearly dispoiled of its 
belongings so that he found himself on his arrival with little 
to conduce to his comfort. The political affairs of the settle- 
ment he found controlled by a dissolute man, who, under the 
garb of a preacher, was exercising a baneful authority over 
the people. Him he promptly arrested, and, obtaining an 
execution against him, succeeded in driving him from the 
country. His government was now in fairly successful oper- 
ation and Thomas Gorges was anticipating a long continu- 

14 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



ance of profitable authority. His administration of affairs 
was generally satisfactory, and there seemed to be no good 
reason to apprehend disaster. I^et us pause and consider the 
conditions existing at this moment in New England. Here 
were two contiguous governments, that of Winthrop on the 
one hand and that of Gorges on the other, founded upon prin- 
ciples wholly irreconcilable, which had long been in confli<5l 
on English soil, and were soon to be tested by the shock of 
arms. Massachusetts, in spirit certainly, if not always in 
pradlice, was a government of the people, for the people and 
by the people, while that of Gorges was of the lord proprietor, 
by the lord proprietor and for the lord proprietor. Which, we 
may well ask, would be most likely to flourish among such 
a people as had sought the New English Canaan in order to 
be free from the trammels of aristocratic power ? Even then 
it would have required no prophet to foretell the result, and 
yet Gorges in the seclusion of his closet was shaping magnifi- 
cent schemes for the future development of his Province, and 
watching with satisfaction the successful inauguration of his 
distant government. Apparently he needed nothing but 
money to bring his plans to speedy fruition, but he had 
influential friends, and owing to a wide spread discontent 
among the masses, emigration to New England was rapidly 
increasing and this would ensure him financial support ; 
besides, he had good reason to expecft royal aid when he 
could show his new Province to the world in all the splendor 
with which its future had been pictured to his imagination. 
But England's government itself, based upon the same prin- 
ciples upon which he was complacently building, had long 
been threatened with disruption, and suddenly the Great 
Rebellion, which had smouldered unnoticed, save for occa- 

15 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



sional rumblings, which had attra<5led but momentary atten- 
tion, burst forth, carrying terror and destrudlion throughout 
the realm. Summoned to judgment royalty arose from its 
throne to meet the rage of a long suffering and outraged peo- 
ple who forthwith seized upon Wentworth, a man of noble 
powers, but one of the royal instruments of oppression, and 
dragging him to Westminster Hall tried him for his life 
before the eyes of the king and queen, and, while doing so, 
regardless of that "Divinity which doth hedge a king," they 
munched their vulgar food, and guzzled their vile beer from 
upturned bottles in the royal presence, as if kings and queens 
were but of common clay ; aye, and heedless of royal entreaty 
as well as of justice, they cut off Wentworth's head. The 
scene of this trial is worthy of the French Revolution, and 
the description of a Carlisle. Not content with the punish- 
ment to Wentworth they seized upon the sacred person of 
Archbishop Laud and threw him into a dungeon from which 
he finally went to the scaffold, while Prynne and other popu- 
lar favorites were taken from prison and given a royal recep- 
tion by the London populace. They even forced the judges, 
who had truckled to the royal will, to pay heavy fines which 
were used to aid the popular cause. England had entered 
upon a reign of terror, and the friends of Gorges, upon whom 
he counted for assistance toward his colonial enterprise, fled 
the country, or were helpless ; yet, undismayed, confident in 
the stability of the divine right of kings, the old man contin- 
ued to amuse himself with the puppets of viceregal authority. 
Resolving to make Agamenticus the seat of power in his 
Province of Maine, he eredled it into a borough, exempting 
and freeing "His Majesties liege people" therein from the 
power and command of any governors in the Province "other 

i6 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



than in calling them as assistants" to repel invasion and sup- 
press rebellion. The especial privilege of eled:ing a mayor 
and board of eight aldermen was conferred upon the inhabi- 
tants of the favored city. This board was empowered to 
make ordinances for the government of the borough, to hold 
courts and eredl fortifications for public protedlion. The 
charter bestowing these privileges upon the people of Aga- 
menticus was dated April loth, 1641,* and on the first of the 
following March, he had elaborated a still grander scheme for 
Agamenticus upon which he now bestowed a new name, 
Gorgeana. The borough, which was a town corporate 
usually governed by a bailiff appointed by the lord-grantor of 
the borough charter in connedlion with a house of burgesses, 
he advanced to the dignity of a city, by which it might appro- 
priately become the seat of a bishop, and gave it a territorial 
extent of twenty-one miles. 

Starting with the assertion that he was the absolute lord of 
the province, and had through God's assistance "settled the 
said province and inhabitants thereof in a hopeful way of 
government," and desiring "to further and advance the 
same," he provided for a municipal government, comprising 
a mayor, twelve aldermen, and twenty-four councilmen, to be 
annually chosen, and, also, for a recorder and town clerk. 
Two courts were appointed, one called a "Courtleet or I^aw- 
day," to be held twice every year, "within a month of the 
Feasts of Easter or Michaelmas, for the good government and 
weal public of the said corporation, and for the punishing of 
all offenders, the same to be kept by the recorder for the time 
being, and the fines, payments, and amercements from time 
to time to be to the use of the said mayor of the said town for 

*New style. 

17 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

the time being forever." The other court was "to be held 
upon Monday of every week forever, and the proceedings to 
be according, or as near as may be, to the court of his 
Majesty's Court of Chancery at Westminister, wherein the 
mayor for the time being to sit as judge with the recorder and 
aldermen, and the town clerk to be clerk and minister of said 
court." From this court appeal could be taken to the Lord 
Proprietor or his deputy, if entered within four days after the 
decree of the court. There were also to be "two or four 
sergeants to attend on the said mayor," who should be 
"called forever sergeants of the white rod." These were 
to be "eled;ed and chosen by the mayor and aldermen," 
whereof the mayor "was to have a double voice." To the 
"mayor and commonality" was granted a corporate seal, and, 
as in the former charter, they were empowered to eredl fortifi- 
cations for the public defence. I have given as briefly as 
possible an outline of the Charter of Gorgeana, which pro- 
vided for a government comprising forty-three officials, prob- 
ably more than half the number of male inhabitants. It is to 
be especially noticed in this charter that Sir Ferdinando, who 
was a zealous churchman, had made Gorgeana appropriate 
for an episcopal residence according to the English model, 
hence his intention to make it a bishopric becomes clear. 
This intention exadlly accorded with the royal order as 
expressed in his charter which was to settle ' ' The religion 
now possessed in the Church of England and ecclesiastical gov- 
erttment now used in the same, with as much convenient speed as 
may be.''' Massachusetts must have observed this with appre- 
hension and dislike, as it ran dire<5lly counter to her own 
policy. Adopting Sir Ferdinando 's point of view we can 
better understand the calm assurance with which he contin- 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINK. 



ued to elaborate his schemes of government at this alarming 
jundlure. Confidently expedling a speedy re-establishment of 
royal power in the kingdom, he was simply arranging affairs 
to take advantage of it. It was plain that with the restora- 
tion of royal authority, emigration, which had been for 
several years active in England, would receive a fresh 
impulse, and where hundreds had fled the country to escape 
the rigid rule of king and bishop, thousands upon the 
re-establishment of that rule, triumphant in the vindication of 
its asserted rights, would turn to the New World for refuge. 
Why might not he, the loyal servant of the king and church, 
by exercising the authority with which he was invested, turn 
this vast stream of emigration into his Province of Maine, 
and make Gorgeana the metropolis of New England ? With 
his faith in the right divine of kingly rule this was no idle 
dream ; indeed, it was one which he might well regard as 
possible of accomplishment. But we know how faulty were 
the premises upon which his calculations were based. No 
sooner had the tocsin of revolution sounded, than the stream 
of emigration, which had for some time been setting toward 
the New World in an ever widening flood bearing much of 
the best blood of England, stopped as though it had been 
arrested in its course by the hand of divine power. Men saw 
as though a flash of light had suddenly revealed it in the 
long prevailing gloom, a possible pathway to freedom at 
home. Why then should they face the perils of the sea and 
the hardships of life in a savage land when the jewel they 
sought might be found and enjoyed by their own firesides ? 
Ship-owners, who had been doing a prosperous business in 
transporting emigrants to New England, saw their ships 
swing idly at their anchors, while they sat in their counting- 

19 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

houses with gloomy faces waiting for passengers who never 
came. But misfortunes ever hunt in company, and while 
these events so threatening to his fortunes were transpiring 
at home, his colonial possessions were menaced by unex- 
pedled dangers. A pernicious rival was a<5lively but quietly 
at work undermining the very structure upon which he was 
building his airy fabric of government. This rival was the 
restless and ambitious George Cleeve, to whom he had 
whilom granted a patent to the peninsula upon which Port- 
land now stands, subsequently called Portland Neck, but 
who, by his efforts to establish his claims, had incurred the 
hostility of the friends of Gorges. When, therefore. Gorges 
set up his new government, Cleeve, whose ability and posi- 
tion in the narrow circle of men interested in the larger 
affairs of the new settlements in Maine, would naturally have 
entitled him to some recognition, was wholly ignored. 
Cleeve must have felt this slight keenly, and he shortly had 
an opportunity to retaliate. In 1630, a patent had been 
granted to a company of adventurers covering territory forty 
miles square between Cape Porpoise and Sagadahoc river. 
Gorges himself had named this territory I^ygonia, in honor 
of his mother, Cicily I^ygon, but the grantees never having 
established de facto possession of their grant, he had regarded 
it as invalid. Cleeve knew of this patent and, possessing 
himself of the facts connedled with it, he sailed at once for 
England, where he saw that the changed condition of gov- 
ernmental affairs would be unfavorable to a royalist like 
Gorges. Arriving in England he found a valuable ally in 
Thomas Morton, the author of the New English Canaan, a 
man of unsavory reputation, who had been banished some 
time before by the Massachusetts authorities, and who was 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINK. 



now a parliamentary lobbyist. Among the men at that time 
occupying high positions in the Cromwellian government 
was Sir Alexander Rigby, and with him Cleeve was soon in 
treaty. The result was that Rigby was induced to purchase 
the disused patent and to appoint Cleeve deputy governor of 
the Province of Lygonia, which comprised the most valuable 
portion of Sir Ferdinando's possessions in Maine. With his 
commission in hand Cleeve at once sailed for New England 
to assume control of his government, and to oust his old 
enemy. Vines, then acting as Sir Ferdinando's deputy gov- 
ernor, for Thomas Gorges had left the Province and hastened 
home to aid in supporting the royal cause. 

Arriving in Boston Cleeve at once sought to enlist the 
sympathies of the Massachusetts authorities in his behalf. 
Knowing how distasteful to them was the vice regal govern- 
ment of Gorges, he confidently counted upon their active 
support in establishing his authority in Maine, but the astute 
JWinthrop and his associates were studying the situation in 
Maine from a more practical standpoint. They not only 
knew that their northern boundary had not been defined, and 
shrewdly suspedled that when it was it would be found to 
include a considerable portion of Maine ; but they were too 
prudent to assume dangerous responsibilities, so they enter- 
tained the new deputy governor pleasantly, and contented 
themselves by notifying Vines unofficially of the transfer of 
power to Rigby and his representative, Cleeve. Cleeve well 
knew from experience the persistent spirit of Massachusetts, 
and that without her power behind him his position would be 
precarious, hence he must have returned home much disap- 
pointed. He, however, entered into a contest with Vines for 
the possession of the government with his usual energy ; but. 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

while the struggle was being pursued with varying fortunes 
to both parties, the news of the battle of Naseby, so fatal to 
the royal cause, reached Vines, who, disheartened, threw up 
his commission and abandoned the country, leaving the gov- 
ernment in the hands of Edward Godfrey, a man no less able 
and loyal to his trust than himself. A decision by the com- 
missioners for Foreign Plantations to whom Parliament had 
referred the case, confirming the validity of Rigby's claim, 
was, however, the final blow to the hopes of Gorges, and, in 
the summer of 1647, he died, having completed his brief nar- 
ration with these remarkable words, showing his submission 
to the divine will. ^''I end and leave all to Him who is the only 
Author of all goodness, and knows best his own time to brittg his 
will to be made m-anifest, and appoiyits his instruments for the 
accomplishment thereof: to whose pleasure it becomes every one 
of us to submit ourselves, as to that mighty God and great and 
gracious Lord, to whom all glory doth belong. ' ' I may have 
trespassed upon your patience in discussing these particulars 
which I have elsewhere more fully discussed, but I believe 
that they may be many times repeated with profit, forming as 
they do an important portion of the early history of this part 
of our State, and here, in closing my narration of Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges' former connedlion with York, I may be par- 
doned for suggesting the eredlion in this town of a fitting 
memorial to the man, who so persistently labored to promote 
its importance. With the end of Sir Ferdinando's efforts to 
extend the importance of Gorgeana, and the firm establish- 
ment of Cromwell's power in England, Massachusetts felt 
that the time had arrived for her to stretch the scepter of her 
authority over Maine, a considerable portion of which she 
found might by a stridl interpretation of her charter, be 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



legally brought within her dominion. Maine had long been 
a menace to her system of government. A continual effort 
from the first had been made to make it the center of royal, 
and, especially, prelatical power in New England. A study 
of the subject reveals this. In 1607, the Rev. Richard 
Semour came here with the Popham Colony to establish ritu- 
alistic worship, and in 1623, "The Rev. William Morrill 
accompanied Robert Gorges, bearing authority to 'superin- 
tend the Churches of New England.' " So also in 1636, 
with William Gorges came the Rev. Richard Gibson to estab- 
lish episcopacy in Maine, and, finally, as a culmination of 
the project, Gorgeana was made a bishopric and centre of 
ecclesiastical authority for Maine, and, by implication, all 
New England. The royal purpose as well as that of Gorges 
must have been clear to the Massachusetts magistrates, and 
they must have realized that its accomplishment would be 
fatal to their own system of government. Episcopal rule in 
Maine then must have been regarded with dread by Puritan 
Massachusetts, which abhorred everything which savored of 
Rome, and she must have been ready whenever occasion 
offered to avert the ever threatening evil. The establish- 
ment of the Commonwealth in England furnished the long 
hoped for occasion, and, in 1652, Massachusetts dispatched 
commissioners here to assume the diredlion of affairs, and 
Gorgeana, now York, entered upon a new chapter of its his- 
tory. Go back with me a moment and take a glance at the 
town as it then was. 

The inhabitants were not like those of Massachusetts; men 
who had left home and friends for religious freedom. They 
were here to better their worldly condition. Many of them 
cared little for any religious form of belief, and lived as fancy 

23 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

led them ; but most of them affirmed themselves to be favor- 
able to the Episcopal order of worship. We find a low state of 
moral life prevalent in the community. The courts adminis- 
tered by rude and unlettered men were occupied with cases 
of moral delinquency of a disagreeable nature, and the shock- 
ing punishments meted out to offenders of both sexes are not 
calculated to enhance our respedl for the judiciary. Most of 
the cases were for intemperance, slander, the breaking of the 
eighth commandment, profanity and other infractions of the 
moral code, such as might be expedled in a new community 
made up of heterogeneous elements with no dominant pur- 
pose to unite, and with little religious teaching to enlighten 
it. Their domestic conditions were pitiable. Their dwell- 
ings, built for the most part of logs, sheltered families fre- 
quently of ten or twelve persons, and comprised two, or, at 
most, three rooms containing for furniture, a rude bench, two 
or three rough stools, a plain unpainted table, and one, possi- 
bly two, coarse beds. With such conditions how could one 
expedl modesty and decorum to flourish? Fish and game 
were plenty in the woods and near-by waters, and hogs, root- 
ing in the clam beds, furnished a supply of meat for winter 
use, if the bears and especially the wolves, which disturbed 
the sleep of the tired settlers, did not destroy too many of 
them. But the wolves were less troublesome than the prowl- 
ing savages, who at any time might surprise the sleeping 
settlers, and after nightfall the children would start with fear 
at any unusual sound. In winter, one could not get about 
except upon snow-shoes, owing to the depth of the snow, 
which often compelled entrance to one's house by the roof or 
an upper window. Such is a faint picture of York as it was 
in the year of our L/ord, 1652, when the Bay Commissioners 

24 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



assembled to notify its inhabitants that henceforward the rule 
of Massachusetts was to be extended over them. Of course 
there was a divided opinion in the community. Many wel- 
comed the new government which would bring them order 
and a generally improved condition of affairs; but there were 
also many others, friendly to the Gorges government, who 
would not be reconciled, and some of those, like Godfrey, 
Josselyn and others, were influential; but Massachusetts did 
not yield to any opposition. A pair of stocks, a cage, a 
whipping-post and a ducking-stool* for scolding women, 
were set up to accommodate the people of this part of Maine, 
and were kept well employed. The rule of Massachusetts 
was severe, but it was beneficial, and the order that it 
established, though far from perfedl, led more settlers of a 
desirable kind to Maine, thereby improving the character of 
her citizenship. Indeed, Maine owes to Massachusetts a 
large debt of gratitude for her so-called usurpation. Nine 
years after her assumption of authority, the rule of Cromwell 
having come to an end, and royalty restored in England, the 
heir of Gorges succeeded in getting parliament to declare 
adversely to the claims of Massachusetts, and royal commis- 
sioners were dispatched to New England to re-establish the 
authority of the king. The rule of Massachusetts had been 
judicious, and a majority of the people favored it, but there 
was still a considerable number loyal to the memory of the 
Ivord Proprietor, especially in this town. Although the com- 
missioners presented an order signed by the king's own hand 
commanding Massachusetts to restore the territory and juris- 

* The ducking-stool was a seat suspended from a pole over the water, 
the offender being strapped thereto and submerged a sufficient num- 
ber of times to satisfy the sentence of the court. 

25 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

di(5lion of the province to the heir of Sir Ferdinand© Gorges, 
Massachusetts was obdurate and refused to relinquish her 
claims, and, when the royal representatives appointed officers 
to govern the province, Massachusetts sent her commis- 
sioners to York to hold court, with orders to arrest and pun- 
ish persons resisting her authority. Affairs continued in this 
unsatisfactory condition until Massachusetts in 1667, suc- 
ceeded in purchasing the charter of the province of the heir 
of Gorges, which gave ample validity to her title. 

To establish the simple worship of the Congregational 
faith, as well as to foster education was always a chief consid- 
eration with Massachusetts, and a church was soon organized 
and placed under the charge of the Rev. Shubsel Dummer, 
who, with his wife, a daughter of Edward Rish worth, a citi- 
zen of York and man of much note in Maine, exercised an 
important influence upon the community. For a score of 
years they continued their unremitting labors, and, we have 
reason to believe, with a large measure of success. The 
history of York during this period of its vicissitudes, its 
struggles, and constant alarms from threatened attack by a 
savage foe instigated by the French, who were bent upon 
destroying the English settlements, will ever be of interest to 
the student of New England history. 

The long dreaded blow finally fell upon this town. A 
band of savages in the winter of 1692, led by Frenchmen, set 
out from the Penobscot, being joined on the way by allies 
from the Kennebec, to attack the western settlements, and on 
the night of February 4th, encamped upon the wooded slopes 
of Mt. Agamenticus, from whence they could look down 
upon the little village of York, and see the twinkling lights 
in the houses of those they had marked for destrudlion. 

26 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Some of these houses were fortified, and a watch kept, which 
probably deterred the wary savages from making a night 
attack, for they waited until dawn before leaving their 
uncomfortable lair. Then as the light began to appear they 
crept towards their prey, partially concealed by the snow 
which was now silently falling about them. The watch at 
this hour had doubtless ceased, and they approached the 
doomed village unperceived. A door of one of the houses 
opened and a boy came forth with his axe. Soon he was 
engaged at his task unconscious of impending danger, when 
suddenly he was seized by rough hands, forced to answer a 
few fierce questions, and then his head was split open by a 
hatchet, and he was left dying upon the new fallen snow. 

The savages dividing into two parties, now began their 
cruel work, butchering men, women and children alike ; 
"Even infants in the cradle were not spared," says the 
Frenchman, Villebon, in his account of the massacre. 
Owing to the exposure of York to attack, Dummer had been 
frequently urged to leave the town, but had refused, declar- 
ing that he would remain and share the dangers of those 
whom he had, says Mather, "Converted and edified by his 
ministry." He was just mounting his horse when struck 
down by a bullet. His wife and son were taken prisoners. 
Contrary to their usual custom a number of old women and 
children, who appeared too feeble to take the long journey to 
Canada, which was the destination of the captives, were 
released when the savages left the ruined village. Among 
these was the delicate wife of the dead pastor. Her son, 
however, was a prisoner, and frantic with grief, the bereaved 
woman returned to the savages begging for his release, but 
was roughly sent away. Motherly affe(5tion prompted her to 

27 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

renew the attempt, and she again returned to the savages to 
pray for his release. The only reply she received was, that 
as she wanted to be a prisoner she should have her desire. 
She was therefore compelled to follow her cruel captors ; but 
a march through the wilderness in the dead of winter without 
suitable shelter and food was enough to test the endurance of 
the hardiest man, and she soon perished. Of the fate of her 
son no authentic record has been discovered. Mather was 
moved by this terrible event to express his feelings in rhyme 
after this manner: 

"Dummer the shepherd sacrificed, 
By wolves because the sheep he priz'd, 
The orphan''s father, church's light, 
The love of heav'n, of hell the spight.^' 

The destrudtion of York and the death and captivity of 
nearly the entire population were so disheartening, that the 
few who escaped contemplated an abandonment of the settle- 
ment, but a few clung to their old dwelling place, and these 
formed a nucleus for a new town. 

With the inauguration of a new government in England 
under William and Mary, owing to continued agitation, for 
the rule of Massachusetts was watched in England with a 
jealous eye, a new charter for Maine was made, and it arrived 
just after the destruction of York. It provided for a legis- 
lature consisting of two branches, and this town, in spite of 
its condition, was represented in both its branches. The 
condition of the town was, however, deplorable. Poverty 
and continual alarms from threatened attacks by the sav- 
ages prevented any considerable growth. The destrudtion of 
the Pequawket tribe by lyovewell afforded temporary relief, 
but the French continued their pernicious efforts against the 

28 



OF THK TOWN OF YORK, MAINK. 



English settlers, and it was not until New England, aroused 
by the necessity of an aggressive warfare, transferred the war 
to French territory and captured their stronghold at Louis- 
burg, that peace seemed assured. In this splendid achieve- 
ment citizens of York participated. The fall of lyouisburg 
was the most important event which had occurred in New 
England, and was hailed with demonstrations of joy as it 
gave assurance of tranquil times. Its relinquishment, how- 
ever, by England was a sad blow to the hopes of the poor 
colonists, and it was not until its second and final recapture by 
Wolfe in 1758, and the extinguishment of French power in 
New France, which shortly followed, that peace with the 
savages was fully accomplished. 

From this time York began to thrive and soon became a 
fairly prosperous fishing and farming community. With all 
danger from their French and savage neighbors removed, 
an era of prosperity at last dawned upon the coast towns of 
Maine in which York, owing to her favorable position and the 
sturdy charadter of her inhabitants, shared. Settlers from 
neighboring colonies found their way here, and with strong 
arms cleared the forests and laid the foundations of a pros- 
perous settlement, so that where a short time before poverty 
and discouragement abounded, thrift and prosperity began to 
flourish. When the War of the Revolution came, calling to 
the men of New England to strike a blow for freedom, this 
town was not backward in contributing efficient aid to the 
popular cause, and during the gloomy years which followed, 
full of alarms and discouragements, the people of York laid 
their lives and treasures a willing sacrifice upon the altar of 
Liberty. Again, in the War of 1812, the citizens of York 
responded with alacrity to the bugle call which summoned 

29 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

them from boat and field to the defence of their rights. 
Since Maine became a sovereign State in 1820, the history of 
York, though it has not been marked by any startling events, 
has been that of a peaceful and happy community, worthy to 
be regarded with pride by her sons and daughters. As in 
the earlier wars in which this country, since it became a na- 
tion, has been unfortunately engaged, the war with Mexico, 
the Civil War and the late war with Spain, you have always 
displayed your patriotism, as no doubt you will continue to 
do in the future, should this country be drawn into conflidl 
with other powers, which let us hope may never happen. 

Thus far we have turned the eye of retrospe(5tion towards 
the past. We have reviewed together its history, and striven 
to re-people these pleasant scenes with the forms of those who 
once lived their lives among them. So much for the past ; 
what of the future? What will your town be when you 
assemble to commemorate its third centennial ? For there 
are a few now within sound of my voice who will be here to 
witness that event. What you will be is of more importance 
than what you have been. One thing is certain ; the world 
will have changed. Great inventions and discoveries will 
have been made ; perhaps a new force, more efficient than 
steam or ele(5tricity, will have been harnessed to the chariot 
of progress. Widely separated communities will have been 
brought nearer to each other than we dream of to-day; the 
produdtive world will no longer be dominated by ignorance 
and misguided by crude theories ; agriculture will have 
assumed a place nearer its true one in the estimation of men, 
and literature and art, twin lights of civilization, will illum- 
ine the way of progress ; hence it will be a better ordered 
world and nearer our ideal, though far below what we hope 

30 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



it may become in some more remote future, when Christian- 
ity shall more perfectly dire(5l its course. 

I have denominated literature and art as twin lights of 
civilization; neither are found in savage life ; the bark 
inscription, the carved war club and painter feather are the 
first signs of their existence. I go farther and say that the 
use made of these lights is the measure of civilization. 

In the past, we, of New England, have not found time to 
devote to art ; beauty has been ignored in our devotion to 
utility, and we have left our cities and towns, especially our 
country towns, to grow at random. This is not as it should 
be ; they should be beautified and adorned. The Greeks 
understood this better than we have hitherto, and beautified 
their surroundings with adornments, the relics of which still 
excite the admiration of mankind. Take up this work then ; 
make your town beautiful, that it may be a growing joy to 
those who follow you. As this is one of the oldest towns in 
the State, let it be the foremost in this work. A splendid 
example, which every citizen of the State should behold, may 
be seen at Rumford Falls. Such an achievement could only 
be compassed by the brain and heart of a Hugh Chisholm, 
and it forms a nobler monument to him than one of brass. 

In this work do not forget memorials of your past, of the 
men who have contributed to your betterment. I do not 
mean by such memorials as monuments which savor of mortal- 
ity, but real works of art. In a city in Germany, many years 
ago, a rathaus, or city government building was begun, and 
is now drawing towards completion ; something from year to 
year having been added to it according to its original concep- 
tion. All the material used in its construdlion is of local 
origin, and the work in it has all been accomplished by local 

31 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

artisans and artists. This building is the embodiment of the 
city's history. The walls and ceilings of its many rooms are 
decorated with historic scenes from its founding to a recent 
period ; each room exhibiting one or more chapters in its life 
and progress. The carven doors, the adornments of frieze 
architrave, and even the finely wrought iron work bear his- 
toric designs, and the faces which everywhere present them- 
selves to you in sculpture or painting are those of former citi- 
zens. What memorials can excel these ? I know of none 
which equal them. You of York are blessed with natural 
surroundings of great beauty and a population noted for 
moral and intelle(5lual worth. I know of no surer promise of 
a happy future to our beloved land than such a community ; 
fearing God, loving education, temperance and thrift. We 
are here to recognize these virtues ; to take part in an act of 
history ; to record our faith in popular institutions ; in prog- 
ress inspired by love of God and love of man. These two 
give dignity to humanity, and irradiate it with the spirit of 
deity. Yesterday humanity bowed to the pitiless spirit of 
force ; today it greets the angel of liberty ; tomorrow it will 
hail the reign of universal brotherhood. War has blackened 
the pages of history and stained them with tears and blood ; 
the history of this town, as well as the history of the world ; 
but, henceforth, we may hope that peace will keep them 
stainless and undefiled. 

"Oh first of human blessings ! and supreme ! 
Fair peace ! how lovely, how delightful thou ! 
By whose wide tie, the kindred sons of men 
Live brothers like, in amity combined. 
And unsuspicious faith ! While honest toil 
Gives every joy, and to those joys a right, 
Which, idle, barbarous warfare but usurps." 

32 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Cultivate, then, all the arts of peace ; fertilize your fields ; 
plow, and harrow, and sow, and reap with thankful hearts 
the harvests that they yield. Let industry enrich your town 
that genius may find room to adorn it with memorials of its 
past, and philanthropy with schools and libraries, and what- 
ever ministers to the true upbuilding of man, for industry 
clears the way of progress. The history of York is not such 
as men, dominated by the false dogma that might is right, 
call great. Its pioneers flaunted no emblazoned arms nor 
knightly shield, but with dauntless hearts and stout arms led 
the way like a forlorn hope into the wilds of Agamenticus to 
plant deep the foundations of civilization. To them belongs 
the meed of praise, greater than that to victorious generals or 
founders of mighty dynasties, for they laid enduring founda- 
tions. We salute their memory. 



33 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



Iblstorical Sketch of ^oxh. 



By FRANK D. MARSHALIy. 

On the 5th day of August, 1902, the Town of York 
formally commemorated its two hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary as a town established by Massachusetts Bay Colony. 
Yet here, in the year 1642, on the banks of a river called 
Agamenticus, antedating by a decade and more this Puritan 
municipal franchise, was established the first city in Amer- 
ica, under the name of Gorgeana. Here was to be the 
capital of the Province, and the seat of the bishop ; the 
evident intention of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "Lord Palatine 
of the Province of Maine," being to set up a government 
on lines sharply opposed to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 
matters both civil and ecclesiastical. How far his dream of 
vice-regal sovereignty across the seas came true has already 
been told by Mr. Baxter. 

Bancroft writes: "In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, a dis- 
creet and intrepid navigator, . . . undertook the diredl voy- 
age from the British Channel to America. From the Azores, 
to which he was borne by contrary winds, he ran a westerly 
course . . . but it was only after seven weeks that he came 
in sight of Cape Elizabeth, in Maine. Following the coast to 
the southwest, he skirted 'an outpoint of wooded land'; and, 
about of the fourteenth of May, he anchored 'near Savage 

34 




Mr. Frank D. Marshall, 

Portland, Maine. 



OP the; town of york, maine. 



rock,' to the east of York harbor. There he met a Biscay 
shallop; and there he was visited by natives." Thence he 
stood south and on the fifteenth discovered Cape Cod. If 
Bancroft has rightly interpreted the narrative of Gosnold, he 
was the first Englishman known to have seen the coast 
of York. Just a year later Martin Pring, with the Speedwell 
and the Discoverer, craft of less than fifty tons burden, 
coasted along these shores, and discovered York River, even 
if he did not ascend it. But Captain John Smith, picking 
his way along these shores in the summer of 1614, traced 
their indentations with business-like accuracy upon his great 
map dedicated to Prince Charles, and more clearly plotted 
the river and shore line of York, as well as its great hill. 
On his return to England, Smith submitted the map to Prince 
Charles, then a boy of some fifteen years, who changed, as 
Smith tells us, about thirty-five "barbarous Indian names" 
for others, "in order that posterity might be able to say that 
that royal personage was their godfather"; hence Agamenti- 
cus was named Snowden Hill, and "Boston" was located at 
its base. 

Thus, in a large measure, the coast became known in a 
general way to Gorges, Popham and other promoters of trade 
and colonization, and drew their attention. 

Gorges says he "had long known lyieut.-Col. Norton, who 
had raised himself from a common soldier to his present posi- 
tion." He speaks of him as an industrious man, who well 
understood whatever he undertook, and who was strong to 
carry it out. Gorges obtained a patent for Norton and asso- 
ciated with him his grandson Ferdinando Gorges, "conceiv- 
ing that he would thus be better fortified in his rights." 
Under this patent, issued in December, 1631, twelve thousand 

35 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

acres were granted to Norton and others on the east side of 
York River, while a like amount on the west bank was given 
to the grandson. Gorges writes that thereupon Norton and 
his associates "hastened to take possession of their territory, 
carrying with them their families and other necessary pro- 
visions, and I sent over for my son my nephew, Capt. 
William Gorges . . . with some other craftsmen for the 
building of houses and eredling saw mills ; and by other 
shipping from Bristol some cattle with other servants, by 
which the foundation of the plantation was laid. . . ." 

Preceding this expedition must have gone Edward God- 
frey, a steadfast defender of the rights of Gorges and a man 
whose charadler stands out strong and able. In 1654 
Godfrey, then in England, filed a claim against Massachu- 
setts Bay, wherein he recited that he had been a resident of 
York for a quarter of a century "and was the first who ever 
built there." This fixes the first permanent settlement in 
1629 ; yet, in all probability, at least summer fishing stages 
earlier existed on the shores of York River, but nine miles 
distant from the Piscataqua plantation of 1623, notably on 
"Stage Island," or "Stage Neck," as later called.* 

Thus came to York the first settlers. The names of many 
prominent in town and province affairs are now forgotten ; 
others are perpetuated by resident descendants, while many a 
son of the great West comes back to the old Agamenticus, or 
Bristol settlement, not only because its summer shores are 
pleasant, but to wander for a season in the paths of his 
ancestors. Prominent among the emigrants, in addition to 

•Belknap, Williamson and others fix the date of settlement of York 
as early as 1622-23, but they do not adduce authorities to substantiate 
their statement. 

36 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Norton* and Godfrey, were Francis Raynes, Arthur Bragdon, 
Henry Dunnells, Thomas Bradbury, John Puddington, 

Richard Banks, Sylvester Stover, Hugh Gale, Roger Garde 

> 

Henry Simpson, William Hooket, William KHingham, 
Sampson Anger, Nicholas Davis, John Twisden, Senior, 
Richard Burgess and John Allcock. 

Probably many of these and their immediate successors 
were "such young persons as being married have neither 
howse nor home of theire owne but what they can get by 
their labors." These Gorges described to be best fitted for 
emigrants. However that may be, during the first decade of 
the settlement's existence not a few men came who possessed 
education, self-reliance and good charadter. At this time, 
although a "chapel or oratory" is referred to, there was no 
settled minister. The settlement during the brewing troubles 
in England was, nominally at least, loyal to Charles First 
and to the Church ; and, as subsequent events show, a few of 
its men of standing were strong in their faith. As early as 
1634 their future Lord Palatine wrote his sovereign, express- 
ing a desire to here set up and firmly establish the church ; 
and the king had expressly commanded Gorges to settle 
with all convenient speed the ecclesiastical government of the 
Church of England. 

In April, 1639, the king made Gorges Lord Palatine of the 
Province of Mayne, conferring a high degree of feudal 
authority. The old cavalier then aspired to come hither in 

*L,ittle is known of Walter Norton, "who had raised himself from a 
common soldier." He died previous to March, 1638, leaving as his 
only child Jane Simpson, wife of yomig Henry Simpson who was prob- 
ably one of the original settlers of the town. 

tWilliam Hooke was "Governor of Agamenticus" in 1638. 

37 



TWO hundr:ed and fiftieth anniversary 

person, and set about building a ship for his conveyance; 
but by some mishap it fell upon stocks and was ruined. 
Thereupon Thomas Gorges, a nephew, or "cousin" as such 
kinsmen were then called, was dispatched as Deputy Gov- 
ernor. He was from the Inns-of-Court, a barrister, barely 
twenty-one years of age, and a man of ability and judicious 
temperament. Up to this time the community, with those 
contiguous, had been accustomed "to order their affairs as if 
they alone were the supreme lords." In 1640 Thomas 
Gorges reached Agamenticus and established his authority. 
The court records show that he controlled with vigor. He 
found there "the wily and corrupt George Burdett," in the 
guise of a clergyman, working iniquity. Burdett was 
arrested, indidled and convidled of various crimes. Thomas 
Gorges returned to England in 1643 and joined the Round 
heads as a lyieut. -Colonel in the Somerset Militia, later 
becoming a member of Parliament from Taunton. The 
cellar of his residence at York is still pointed out on the 
banks of the river. 

On April loth, 1641, Sir Ferdinando Gorges created the 
little Agamenticus settlement into a borough with the 
"church chapel, or oratory"* as the center thereof; and on 
March ist, 1642, he issued his charter, as "lyord of y^ 
Province of Mayne," changing the borough into a "citie" 
. . . and ordained "that y* Circuite of y^ said Incorpora- 
tion . . . shall extend from y^ Beginning of y^ Entrance of 
y^ River ... & so up y^ said River seven Inglish miles, 
and all along y^ East & North East side of y^ sea shore 

*The writer doubts whether this chapel was actually built, at least as 
early as 1641, although it would be gratifying to have evidence that it 
did then exist. 

38 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Three English miles in Breadth from y« Entrance of y^ said 
River, and up into y^ Mayne I^and, seven miles, Butting 
with y« seven miles from y« sea side, . . , that y« same 
from henceforth be . . . called by the name of Gorgeanna, 
and ... to have continuance forever. ..." 

Then followed all provisions "for better governing y^ said 
Citie," including the seledlion of the mayor, aldermen, 
"common councill" and recorder, as well as for a "Court 
I,eete," and a Court of Justice, proceedings to be "accord- 
ing . . . to his Maj^s* Court of Chancery at Westminster." 
There were officials called "Sergants of y^ White Rod" to 
"serve and return all precepts." Moreover all lands were to 
"bie holden of y« Kings Majestic ... In free and Comon 
Cotage, and not in Capite." A market was established; 
also fairs were to be held "... upon the feast day of St. 
James and St. Paul." Then followed a right of appeal in all 
causes to the lyord Palatine ; and a clause giving all the 
privileges "as the City of Bristol holdeth." 

Such in effedl was the old feudal machinery, with all its 
refinements, for governing and developing a community of 
about three hundred souls planted on a rugged coast, con- 
fronted by an endless forest, and but two days' journey from 
Massachusetts Bay, ready at the first plausible excuse to 
reach out and assimilate these "men to the eastward." 

Thomas Gorges was the first mayor. On his return to 
England, Roger Garde, the recorder, succeeded him in office. 
Then Governor Winthrop said "they made a taylor their 
mayor" — an observation of doubtful grace coming from "the 
grandson of a clothworker." The records show Garde to 
have been a man of education ; and that he had a standing in 
the community is apparent not only by his becoming chief 

39 



TWO HUNDRKD AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

magistrate, but also from the fact that Thomas Gorges com- 
mitted his private estate to his care. He died in 1645 and 
was buried with military honors. Edward Godfrey was the 
third mayor of the city. 

Meanwhile the aged Sir Ferdinando had taken up arms for 
his king. He became a prisoner of Cromwell, was released, 
and died in 1647, having spent a fortune and a lifetime in col- 
onizing adventures. John Gorges succeeded to his estates. 

Hearing nothing from their I,ord Palatine, and their sov- 
ereign dethroned, discouragement to Royalists in Gorgeana 
was inevitable. After all, its people were but yesterday 
residing in Kent, Somerset and Sussex ; and the rising tide 
of representative government in the mother country would 
soon and often bring ships to these shores bearing news to 
find quick response here. On both sides of the Atlantic the 
pulse of English thought beat much the same. It was now 
prudent for Royalists to be passive, if not submissive. God- 
frey was most outspoken for the rights of the charter, and 
later suffered accordingly. It was under these conditions 
that in 1649 the citizens met those of Kittery and Wells and 
resolved : "whereas Sir Ferdinando Gorges is dead : and for 
the better ordering . . . till Further Authorryty shall come 
out of England ... to unite into a boddy pollitick ... to 
see the's parts . . . regulated according to such lawes as 
formerly have been exercised." They chose Godfrey gover- 
nor. 

In Odlober of the same year a "Generall Courte" was 
holden at Gorgeana "before the right Worp" Edward God- 
frey, Dep. Gov*". Mr. Nicholas Shapleigh, Mr. Abraham 
Preble, Edward Rushworth, Assistants." It took cognizance 
of civil, criminal and ecclesiastical matters. At this time the 

40 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Grand Jury presented William Hilton for "not keeping 
vittual and drink at all times for strangers and inhabitants." 
Mr. Hilton was the ferryman at York Harbor, and was evi- 
dently the first man to keep a public house in that now flour- 
ishing and beautiful summer resort. 

The Court further decreed that "all who are out of a 
Churchway and be orthodox in judgment and not scandalous 
in life, shall have full liberty to gather them-selves into a 
Church estate . . . and every Church hath Frie liberty of 
Eledtion and ordination of all her officers . . . provided they 
be able pious and orthodox." Although there was then 
probably no settled minister, it is reasonably certain that for 
years past Episcopal clergymen had often conduced worship ; 
also that Puritan ministers labored among the people, notably 
Rev. Mr. Thompson, "pious and learned." 

It may be said in passing that probably religious freedom 
was not the master motive of a majority of the first settlers 
in Gorgeana, or York, as it was professed to be in Massa- 
chusetts Bay. The men who came at the bidding of Gorges 
were colonizers ; they were to hold and populate the country 
for their Lord Palatine. In conveyances they frequently 
described themselves as planters ; in those days titles were 
more carefully and properly applied than now. Hence it is 
not surprising that among them may have been adventurers, 
and some reckless characters who, not passing muster under 
rigid Puritan laws, here sought shelter beyond the Piscataqua 
shore. 

Yet it cannot be denied that Massachusetts Bay had some 
motive in giving ready ear to tales of lawlessness that may 
have come down the coast to Salem and Boston. "With her 
the spirit of expansion then prevailed. York's records, both 

41 



Two hundre;d and fiftiejth anniversary 

civil and criminal, do not greatly differ from those of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay towns. Vague stories long repeated may 
merge into tradition, and tradition into accepted history, 
which until more recent years we have taken largely from 
Massachusetts. What reason is there to believe that these 
immigrants and colonizers were not, in the aggregate, as 
sober minded, industrious, law abiding and intelligent as 
their English kinsmen three score miles to the south ? 

Meanwhile there had come within the city limits a new 
element. The uprising of the Scots in the forties had made 
it convenient, if not necessary, for certain Cavaliers to seek 
new homes across the sea. So along the river bank grew up 
a hamlet known to this day as "Scotland." The descendants 
of Pierce and Micum Mclntire, Robert Junkins, Thomas 
Donnell, Joseph Grant* and other Scotchmen, still dwell 
there, and have for more than two hundred and fifty years 
been prominent in town affairs. 

In the summer of 1652 Massachusetts Bay, having con- 
strued its great charter to embrace much of Maine, sent a 
commission "to treat with the gentlemen of the eastward." 
Governor Godfreyt refused to submit, resolving to exercise 
jurisdiction "until it shall please Parliament, the Common- 
weal of England, . . . otherwise to order, under whose 

*Banished by Cromwell in 1645 or 1647. 

tFor obvious reasons Edward Godfrey does not appear in office after 
1652. Part of the time he was in England struggling for the heir of 
Gorges ; in 1655 Massachusetts Bay stripped him of much of his 
estates. At the restoration he again went to England. In 1663 he 
died a prisoner for debt in the Fleet, Ludgate, aged 79 years. In 1665 
York regranted his homestead lands on the south side of York River, 
to Anna Godfrey, his widow. 

42 



OP THR TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



power and protedlion we are." Yet even in Gorgeana the 
majority was against him, so he writes, "whatever my body 
was enforced to do Heaven knows my soul did not consent 
unto." Some open violence followed in the town, but Mas- 
sachusetts prevailed, and it was doubtless better that she did. 
The charter was revoked, and thus after ten short years, the 
first city in America ceased to exist. "Thorough" was the 
shibboleth in Massachusetts Bay as well as in England, so 
not even a well-deserved and euphonious name was left this 
little settlement in memory of its founder. Massachusetts 
Bay, granting citizenship to those who took "y* Oath of 
Freedom," conferred the less graceful name of York. Thus 
began its corporate existence.* 

The vicissitudes of those early days may be traced from the 
records of the town. By 1660 York was growing rapidly 
and flourishing, as is evidenced by land grants. Yet the 
title to the Province was still in litigation, adherents to 
Massachusetts Bay continuing dominant. But now that 
the crown was restored to Charles Second, even Massachu- 
setts Bay feared, at times, lest its own great charter be 
annulled. When the fortunes of the Gorges heirs, at brief 
intervals, would be uppermost, land grants in York would 
almost cease, in fadl none are recorded in 1661-2; in 1663 
but one grant was "laid out to John Frost fisherman." 
The King's commissioners visited the town in 1665 and made 
proclamation requiring the inhabitants to submit to the 

*The Commissioners' Court was held at Gorgeana on the 22nd of 
November, 1652 ; sitting, Simeon Bradstreet, Bryan Pendleton, Tho : 
Wiggine, Sam'll Symonds ; Edward Rishworth, Recorder. On that 
day the legal existence of Gorgeana, or Agamenticus, ceased, and 
York began as a body corporate. York Records, Part I, Folio 27. 

43 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

immediate protedtion and government of the King ; but proc- 
lamations do not make stable government, so in July, 1668, 
for the second time commissioners from Massachusetts 
Bay arrived, this time with a military escort. A turbulent 
scene followed at the meeting-house, but again the Puritan 
authority was established and "a few prominent individuals 
who would not submit were summarily dealt with." Finally, 
in 1677, the Justices decided that the claim of young Gorges, 
as heir, was valid. Then he offered to sell his title to the 
Province to the King, presumably for the Duke of Mon- 
mouth, the favorite son of Charles Second. But the agents 
of Massachusetts Bay lost no time in quietly crossing the sea 
to make a purchase; and for ^1,250 Gorges passed a clear 
title to Massachusetts Bay — to the furious indignation of the 
King, it is said. Thereupon follow page upon page of land 
grants in the records of this town, until the year 1682, when 
the King diredled a writ of qtw warranto against the charter 
of Massachusetts Bay, and once more the records show noth- 
ing granted. 

Thus for thirty years York, the seat of provincial govern- 
ment, and the place last reconciled to the rule of Massachu- 
setts Bay, was a storm center of the contesting claimants. 
The last fitful cloud vanished in 1684, when President Dan- 
forth, authorized by Massachusetts Bay Colony, "y« now 
I<ord Proprietors," confirmed to the inhabitants all rights 
and privileges "to them formerly granted by Sir Ferdinand© 
Gorges." The instrument conferring these rights was an 
indenture, "Between Thomas Danforth Esq. president of his 
Maj**^^ Province of Mayne, in New Kngland, on the one 
party, and Major John Davis, Mr. Edward Rushworth, 
Capt. Job Alcock and L,ieut. Abraham Prebble, Trustees on 

44 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



y* behalf and for y* sole use and benefit of y* Inhabitants of 
y* Town of Yorke." The consideration of the deed is "That 
they y^ abovesaid Inhabitants . . . forever hereafter as an 
acknowledgement of Sir Ferdinando Gorges^ and his Assigns, 
right to Soyle and Government, do pay twelve pence for 
every family whose Single Country rate is not above Two 
Shillings, and for all that exceed the sum of Two shillings, 
in a single rate, to pay three shillings pr. family annually in 
money to y^ Treasurer of said Province, for y* use of y* 
Chief e proprietor thereof." 

Thus it would seem that in this instance Massachusetts 
Bay chose to rest on her title as assignee of Gorges' heirs, 
rather than by her interpretation of the famous line north of 
the Merrimac. 

Of the Trustees, above named, Abraham Preble and 
Edward Rishworth are best remembered. Abraham Preble, 
senior, was one of the earliest settlers. lyieut. Abraham 
Preble was generally styled junior. Both men were a(5live in 
town affairs, as surveyors, town clerks and selectmen. I,ieu- 
tenant Preble was representative to the General Court. 
Preble is a name long and favorably known in the State of 
Maine. Edward Rishworth has descendants, but none bear- 
ing his name. He was born in lyincolnshire, England, and 
married Susan Wheelwright, daughter of John Wheelwright, 
vicar of Bilsby. He came from Exeter to Gorgeana in 1647 ; 
was recorder of the Court in 1651, and in 1653 represented 
York in the General Court at Boston. He submitted to the 
Royal Commissioners on their visit to York, before referred 
to, and was thereupon appointed one of the Justices. Three 
years later, in 1668, he was removed by Massachusetts Bay ; 
but in 1673 he apologized and was restored to office, and in 

45 



TWO HUNDRIBD AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

1 680-8 1 he was made chancellor under the Gorges Charter 
acquired by Massachusetts Bay ; also secretary of the Prov- 
ince, He died in 1691. While he displayed unusual facility 
in gaining office under the dominant faction for the time 
being, he seems to have performed his varied public trusts 
faithfully and well. He made for law, order and industry in 
town and provincial affairs, and his name should not be 
forgotten. 

Since the history of the old First Parish is taken up else- 
where in this volume, it will be here touched upon only at one 
or two points. Volume one, page twenty, of the Town 
Records reads as follows : "Wee the Selectmen of the Town 
of York, have given unto the Townhouse for the use of the 
Ministry, a certain parcell of marsh, lying about John Pearses 
Cove, above it, and joining unto William More on the other 
side, containing one acre or thereabouts : 
5 July; 1653: W11.1.IAM H11.TON, 

Peter Weare, 
John Ai,cock, 
Arthur Bragdon, 
Richard Banks." 

This was the beginning of numerous grants of land to the 
ministry, some of which the Parish holds to this day, 
"unreversable as an inheritance given promised and con- 
firmed thereunto for the perpetual use and benefit of y^ Min- 
istry henceforth unto all succeeding generations." 

The first meeting-house was located on the slope of the hill 
on the northeasterly side of "Meeting House Creek," near the 
road leading from York Village to Sewall's Bridge. 

In 1662 Shubael Dummer came from Newbury and began 

46 




Thk BarkkIvL Mansion, York. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



a pastorate which was to end only on his death by the hands 
of the French and Indians on the morning of January 25th, 
1692. He lived near Roaring Rock on the Norwood Farms, 
also having a considerable tract of land "near the Rivers 
mouth," called "Farmer Allcock's Neck" by the sea. 

In the annals of York the events of 1692 have been related 
from generation to generation. The following is from the 
manuscript of the late Hon. Nathaniel G. Marshall, who was 
an authority on the history of his town. "This was a fatal 
year. . . . On the twenty-fifth of January [or February 
4th] ... a descent was made by a body of Indians, at which 
nearly all the inhabitants on the north side of the River were 
either slain or taken prisoners and carried into captivity . . . 
This town, protected in a measure by the villages growing 
up in the interior and on either hand, did not suffer much 
until this year 1692 . . . when it was nearly annihilated. 
All the property and accumulations, recorded in the preced- 
ing pages [referring to town records] , the result of seventy 
years' toil, were swept away, and loved ones . . . were 
either slain or carried into captivity by the Indians, who were 
beyond doubt urged on by the French ; and it is a tradition 
not to be doubted that the Indians who made the attack . . . 
were commanded by French ofiicers, perhaps in disguise 
..." So far as known the torch was put to every house in 
the locality mentioned, excepting only the four or five garri- 
son houses, the meeting-house and the old Gaol. 

Another account, from one whose memory extended back to 
within a hundred years of the event, is that the expedition 
was equipped in Canada, the regions lying to the north and 
east being generally thus designated, with York as the objec- 
tive point and that it consisted of nearly as many French as 

47 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Indians, in all exceeding one hundred and fifty. Reaching 
the outskirts of the settlement at night the expedition piled 
its snowshoes around a large rock, still pointed out. Then it 
separated, a Frenchman and an Indian covering the entrance 
to each dwelling, daybreak or the first gunshot to be the sig- 
nal for a general massacre. Among the first to fall was Rev. 
Shubael Dummer, and then began a cruel slaughter almost 
the equal of Bloody Brook. Arthur Bragdon, Jr., a young 
man, attending his traps suddenly came upon the pile of 
snowshoes. Realizing their import, knowing himself sur- 
rounded by an unseen, unmerciful foe, he fled to Fort Head 
at the Harbor, and there hid among the overhanging 
rocks. Presently an Indian dog appeared, with its mouth 
strapped tight, looked at him and trotted away. He knew 
an Indian would soon come, guided by the dog. Again 
Bragdon started on, followed the shore up river and found an 
old canoe, crossed over, and gave the alarm to the dwellers 
on the "South Side," who fled for their lives. Had Bragdon 
been able, by fire or knife, to have destroyed those snow- 
shoes, doubtless there would have occurred within sight of 
old Mt. Agamenticus a struggle as bloody and as famous as 
any in the Deerfield Valley ; for the alarm given, the men of 
Kittery and Portsmouth started in pursuit. But it was a 
hopeless chase. The French and Indians had the start by 
several hours, and were beyond reach, though impeded by 
their captives. Among the latter was a sturdy youngster, 
who escaped. He is known to history as Colonel Jeremiah 
Moulton, a scourge to the Indians, and a valiant ofiicer in the 
war with France. 

Of the six succeeding years we have this account from an 
unknown man who writes: "When I was about nineteen 

48 



OF THK TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



years old, I was pressed a soldier . . . and was stationed at 
York. When I first came hither there was no settled minis- 
ter, and very little of so much as ye form of religion ; but on 
ye contrary an abundance of levity and vanity, although it 
was soon after ye destru<5tion of a great part of ye town by ye 
Indians." 

One painful result of the sack and massacre was the 
destrudlion of every mill. Therefore the inhabitants were led 
to negotiate with Capt. John Pickerin, of Portsmouth, as 
appears by an open letter submitted by Pickerin wherein he 
speaks of "y^ straits and necessities of your town for want of 
a Corn Mill." His terms were finally accepted in 1695 
by an indenture executed on behalf of the town by 
Samuel Donnell, Alva M. Preble and Arthur Bragdon, and 
sworn to before "Wm. Peperill : Jus. Peace," father of the 
hero of I^ouisburg. Thereby the town secured its corn mill, 
which was a necessity, and therefrom incidentally sprouted 
sufficient litigation relative to timber and mill rights to trans- 
mit to the succeeding generation, even for thirty years. 

At the age of twenty-three. Rev. Samuel Moody, but one 
year graduated from Harvard College, commenced his labors 
at York, arriving May 18, 1698. On petition the General 
Court at Boston assisted in his support by a grant of ;i^i2 
sterling, and the town voted "that there is a whous to bie 
built forth with for yous of ye Ministry ... ye Demenssions 
as foloeth. Twenty eight font in Length and twenty fout wied 
with a lycntoe att one end ... to be two Story high with 
three fiere plesses." Twenty pounds were raised for the 
purpose. 

Thus Samuel Moody commenced a pastorate covering half 
a century of troublous and uncertain times, relying on the 

49 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIPTIKTH ANNIVERSARY 

voluntary offerings of his people. Usually the town would 
vote to "mend his fences," "to cut his hay," and to "supply 
him with fierwood." It also voted to "garrison" his house 
"with square timber of oak or . . . hemlock . . . with two 
suitable Baskins or Flankers." 

In 1 710 it was decided to "have a New Meeting house 
. . . fifty foot square, and to be built Every Way PrePortion- 
able." This was the second house of worship, or the third, if 
the "church chapel, or oratory," mentioned in the charter of 
1 64 1 as being the center of the borough limits, was adlually 
built. 

It was here that John Harmon, Joseph Sayward, Micom 
Mclntire, and others were given "ye hinde seat in . . . our 
meeting house in ye Gallery, Provided they fill it." Since 
these gentlemen were not filling a "hinde seat" in civil 
affairs, it is fair to assume that they were not under the ban 
of Father Moody, but were in fadl thus granted further 
accommodation for their families or servants. 

To revert to Rev. Samuel Moody: He possessed a charadler 
as strong and as well fitted for his times as can be found in 
any New England town. He was able, fearless, a man of 
faith and zeal, and with all these was blessed with more 
charity and benevolence than can be usually ascribed to his 
contemporaries in the ministry. Twice he welcomed 
Whitefield, the great revivalist. Whitefield wrote in his 
journal: "Hither I came to see one Mr. Moody, a worthy, 
plain and powerful minister . . . though much impaired by 
age. . . . He has lived by faith for many years, . . . and 
has been much desipsed by bad men and as much respedled 
by true lovers of the blessed Jesus. He came as far as 
Hampton to meet me, ... As I came along I was surprised 

50 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



to see such improvement made in a place of about one hun- 
dred years' standing and could not but fancy myself in old 
England." 

When seventy years old Father Moody sailed as chaplain 
in the expedition against Louisburg. With him he carried 
an ax, declaring it to be "the sword of the lyord and of 
Gideon," to demolish the images in the Catholic house of 
worship. He died in 1747, having scored deeply in the life 
of the town. The only son of Samuel Moody was Joseph, 
born in 1700, and graduated from Harvard College in 1718. 
He was the great-uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and was 
locally known as "Handkerchief Moody," and undoubtedly 
from Emerson, as friend and neighbor, Hawthorne heard 
much of York chara<5lers, and thus took his cue for The Min- 
ister's Black Veil. Joseph Moody seemed not only eminently 
fitted for public life, but to have entered into it with much 
interest and success. At twenty-one years of age he appeared 
as Town Clerk ; later he was Register of Deeds for York 
County, and at thirty years was Judge of the County Court. 
There seemed before him a long and brilliant career ; but his 
father insisted on his entering the ministry. This he did, and 
in 1732 was ordained first pastor of the Second Parish in York. 
There he preached for six years, when there grew upon him a 
peculiar melancholia. Gradually his eccentricities became 
accentuated, and keeping aloof from his townsmen, eating 
alone, at all times he veiled his face with a handkerchief; 
hence the name of "Handkerchief Moody." He died in 
1753. Rev. Mr. Lyman said of Joseph Moody, "He died a 
martyr to his own declaration that he 'could not preach.' " 

Under the earliest Massachusetts Bay laws church member- 
ship was generally a prerequisite to being a "freeman" with 

51 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

full right to participate in towti affairs. By the Charter of 
Gorgeana it was the "freeholders," those possessing real 
estate, who chose the Common Council. On the abrogation 
of the charter in 1652, the laws of Massachusetts Bay came 
in force here, and by the Charter of William and Mary, 1691, 
liberty of conscience was "allowed in the worship of God, 
to all Christians except papists," and religious tests for 
voting were abolished. Thereafter "freeholders and other 
inhabitants owning property" participated in public affairs. 
Nevertheless rates for support of the ministry were by law to 
be levied as other town charges. The separation between the 
church and the state was not effedled until Maine ceased to 
be a part of Massachusetts in 1820,* although, in later years, 
it is understood that the coUedlion of the rates was not 
always stri(5lly enforced against Baptists and others who 
protested. 

The following vote brings to bear so many of these early 
statutes that it may well be given in full. 

"Att a Ivegall Town Meeting Holden in York Decem'' y*= 
15^^ 1702. 

Resolved by the freeholders and Princable Inhabitanc of 
this Town of York aforesd : to give unto the Rever^ Mr. 
Sam" Moody our Minister and Pastor for his Preaching unto 
us this year insuing. Beginning att this Day of the Date the 
full sum of Sixty Pounds, in or as Money : the which Sixty 
Pounds shall be I^eved upon all Ratable heads and estates 
according to Law : to be leved and Preportioned by the 
Seledlmen of our said Town : and Gethered by vertue of a 
Warrant from them and Paid according to their ord® . . . 
As also a Day Work a year of each Man in this Town as 

* Constitution of Maine. 

52 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Was before ordered : and our sd Minister the privledg of y* 
Parsonage : and it is further ordered that y^ Contrebution be 
Cept up : & all and every of our Inhabitanc that doe contri- 
bute Money : on Sabath Day or Days, Doe put it in Paper 
and Write his or her Name thereon : in order to Discount 
it from or out of their Tax : y^ above Writen Read and 
Voted." 

With the revival of religious interest the first public pro- 
vision was made for the support of a schoolmaster. "... 
Aprill y^ 15*''*: 1701. Pursuant to a vote of This Town for 
a scool Master the said Seledlmen Indented and Bargened 
With Mr. Natha" ffreman to Ceep a free Scool for all y^ 
Inhabitanc of our Town of York for which the Town to pay 
said ffreeman for one year eight pounds in. or as Money and 
three penc pr. week for Taching to Reade : and four penc : 
pr week for Writing and Sifering and no moor." Mr. Free- 
man was employed from year to year until 17 10, when he 
contracted for the term of seven years to keep a "Free School 
to instruct and teach all persons . . . from five years old and 
upwards, that shall come unto him ... in seasonable school 
time, to begin at Eight of y^ Clock in y^ morning & to con- 
tinue until Eleven in y^ forenoon, and in y^ afternoon to 
begin at one of y^ Clock, and to end at five of y^ Clock, or 
according to y^ Custome of Schools; to Teach all such as 
come unto him in Reading, Writing & Cyphering, as they are 
capable." The town also promised "for y^ encouragement 
of said Mr. Nath" Freeman above named, — as School-Master, 
to Build for his own proper use & benefit forever ... a 
Dwelling House, twenty two foot Long, eighteen foot wide 
and eight foot between joynts, with a brick Chimney, with 



53 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

doors, floors and stairs Convenient, suitable to live in . . . 
and to pay 'a sallary Thirty pounds pr year.' " 

On somewhat similar terms Dr. Alexander Bulman set- 
tled in town, being "freely given" ;^ioo provided he gave 
"security for his continuance in y^ town during life." Dr. 
Bulman lived at York Village, and led the arduous life of the 
early country dodlor, gaining knowledge largely by experi- 
ence, combining the duties of doctor and apothecary, pound- 
ing his own drugs, healing as best he knew, and standing 
second only to the judge and the minister. Dr. Bulman died 
in 1745 of fever in the service of the Crown at Louisburg. 
The next year it was voted to "give Dod:. Burchstead of 
Lyn an Invitation to settle in this Town," but apparently he 
did not come. 

Other early physicians were Dr. John Swett who fol- 
lowed Dr. Bulman, and pracfliced until his death in 1790. 
He lived on the south side of York River, and was active in 
town affairs. Dr. Job Lyman,* a contemporary of Dr. Swett, 
survived him. Their work was taken up by William Lyman 
and Josiah Oilman, the latter a man of positive and out- 
spoken views, of strong prejudices, and a firm believer in the 
old and common pradlice of bleeding patients. Before they 
had passed away two young physicians of the newer school, 
Caleb Eastman and Jeremiah Putnam, commenced a pradlice 
covering fifty-six years, ending with their death in 1873 and 
1877 respe(5lively. 

The first decade of the eighteenth century was a trying one 
for the people of the Province, and York had already suffered 
as had few New England towns. Land grants, wills and 
other conveyances of the period from 1692 to 17 13 bear 

*Married the daughter of Jeremiah Moulton. 

54 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



pathetic evidence of its dangers, losses and sorrows. When 
families were broken up or wiped out of existence by the 
massacre of 1692, lands reverted to the town, to be regranted 
to newcomers, and wills provided for the possible return of 
relatives "in captivity with the Indians,"* or "carried captive 
into Canada." During the year 1704 no town record was 
made. "The third Indian war upon the inhabitants of 
Maine, called 'Queen Anne's War,' broke out in 1703, dur- 
ing which year more grants of land had been made for set- 
tling purposes than in any previous year. In the latter part 
of 1703 two of York's most useful and energetic citizens were 
killed, to wit, Arthur Bragdon, Senior, and Matthew Austin. 
In the years 1704- 1705 the war raged furiously ; also in 1706 
and 1707, when the Stover family were slaughtered . . . 
and Benjamin Donnell, a prominent man, was slain. "t 

Out of the hardships and dangers of two decades of Indian 
warfare, there developed two leaders and colonial soldiers, 
Captain John Harmon and Colonel Jeremiah Moulton. The 
latter, a child of but four years, could remember the sack 
of the town and his escape through the snow. As a youth 
he saw the town gradually recover, to be again endangered 
and distressed by the third war. John Harmon had also 
passed through those trying days and his name had already 
become known and feared by the Indians. Together, in 
the summer of 1624, these men planned and led the third, 
and only successful expedition against Norridgewock which 
resulted in the destruction of the Indian village, the tragic 
death of Father Rasld, the most noted of French Catholic 

*See will of Henry Milbury providing for his daughter Dorothy, 
"in captivity," 1695; York Wills. 
tRecords of Nathaniel G. Marshall. 

55 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

missionaries then in New England. The destruction of this 
mission, and the death of this implacable leader of the 
insurgent Indians, marks the end of French influence among 
the New England Indians. York men formed a large pro- 
portion of the punitive expedition. 

It is authentic tradition that either John Harmon or his 
kinsmen, apparently possessing an inborn hatred of the red- 
skins, enticed a band of Indians to the shores of Meeting 
House Creek, in time of peace, and there killed them. 
Father Moody, with his accustomed vigor, denounced the 
act, and prophesied it would come to pass that the name 
of Harmon would cease to be in the town. His words have 
come true, although descendants under other names still 
dwell here. The Harmons were an old and influential 
family. Their houses were on the shore of York River at 
the Harbor. 

Colonel Moulton was also sheriff of the County of York, 
and held various town ofiices. He went with Sir William 
Pepperrell in the expedition against lyouisburg, being in 
command of the Third Regiment of Massachusetts troops. 
Many York men were under him, notably Francis Raynes 
and John Kingsbury. The latter, a youth of eighteen years, 
was wounded in the siege, and had his leg amputated by L,. 
D. I,eopold, Surgeon of the Royal Hospital and Convent at 
L<ouisburg, so says the surgeon's receipt "pour avoir fait la 
amputation de la jambe de Mons. Jean Kingsbury." For 
half a century he stumped around on a wooden leg, a useful 
citizen as Selectman, Justice of the Peace, and a member of 
the Committee on the Crisis of 1774. Colonel Moulton's son, 
Jeremiah, Junior, was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army 
and died from "army fever" in 1777. He in turn had a 

56 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



son, Brigadier General Jotham Moultou, commissioned Feb- 
ruary 8th, 1776.* 

By 1730 the Indians had been forced north and eastward, 
life and property in this locality was becoming reasonably 
secure, and the inhabitants had so increased that the old meet- 
ing-house was too small — meeting-houses in those days being 
the usual place for all public gatherings. Hence a commit- 
tee was chosen and reported "that ... an Addition be 
made to sd Meetin House of Nine foot at each End, that 
there be built a new Plain Roofe & [a steeple] at y^ West 
end." The Parish in 1744 voted to build "a new meeting 
house where y^ old one now stands, seventy feet long and 
fifty feet wide." Three years later, in the last days of 
Father Moody, the old house was torn down and the "stuff & 
material" went into the constru(5lion of the present First 
Parish church, which stood, with minor changes, until 1881, 
when it was remodeled to its present condition. 

As in most old New England towns, affairs of the parish, 
land grants, acts of charity, and of public defense are all 
intermingled in the town records. The following scattered 
extra<5ls shed light on the life of the period. 

"March 12, 1727. Voted that forty pounds be raised and 
delivered to our reverend pastor towards the defraying the 
charges of Mrs. Moody's funeral." 

"1730. Voted that if any person or persons are disposed 
to fence in the Burying Place near the Meeting House at their 
own cost, they have Liberty to do the same, provided it be 
done with a decent and sufficient fence." 

"173 1. Voted that the Seledl Men be desired to prosecute 
in the Law Mr. Zaccheus Trafton for entertaining John 



•Catalogue of the old Gaol, p. 24, ed. 1903. 

57 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Deland contrary to Law, who is become a Town charge, if 
they see cause of Action : Zaccheus Trafton enters his dissent 
against this Vote." 

"Voted that the Thanks of this Town be given to our 
Representative Mr. Richard Milberry, for his good Service in 
Standing by the Priviledges of this Province, in the General 
Assembly & That he be desired to continue to do the same." 

"1732. Whereas John Smith hath by God's Providence 
lost one of [his] Leggs, & has been at great Expense in 
obtaining a Cure &c, Therefore granted to sd John Smith the 
Sum of Fifty Pounds." 

Nearly every town meeting for a hundred years or more 
passed votes in substance as follows : 

"Voted there be liberty for swine to go at large well yoked 
& ringed as the law diredls." 

"Voted that Four Pounds be paid out of the Town Stock 
for every grown Wolf that shall be killed within the Bounds 
of this Town." 

At a meeting held January 28, 1734, the town did its part 
toward providing a court house. 

"Voted that this Town will Joyn with y^ County in build- 
ing of a Court House in this Town, which House shall be for 
y^ Use of sd County to hold Courts in & for a Town House 
for y* Use of this Town, to meet in, on all Public Times, if 
they see cause : The Dementions of sd House to be as fol- 
loweth, viz: Thirty Five Foot Long & Twenty eight Foot 
wide : Twenty Foot Stud : the lower Story Eight Feet & a 
Half high : the upper Eleven Feet and a Half, and y^ Beames 
of y^ Upper Story to be crowning. Eighteen Inches, & to 
have a Pitchd Roofe ; both Rooms to be Plaistered & White- 
washed and well Glaized with Sash Glass, and to be Finished 

58 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



with Joynery Work, according to y* direction of y* Com- 
ittee, that are & shall be appointed by the County & Town, 
and yt the one Half of y^ Charges arrising in building 
& Finishing sd House, shall be bourne by this Town." 
Another court house was built in 1811, being, in fact, the 
present town hall at York Village. It probably stands a 
little back from the site of its predecessor. Until 1760 York 
was the shire town for the whole Province of Maine. There- 
after it was the shire town for the County of York until 1832, 
when the county offices and records were removed to Alfred. 
Probate Court continued to be held in York, at stated times, 
until 1 87 1. 

This resolution passed in town meeting, March 12, 1734 : 
"Whereas, It is an Indesent thing the Dogs Should be 
suffered to come into the Place of Publick Worship, in Time 
of Divine Service, & is often the occasion of great disorder & 
disturbance by their Quaraling & fiting . . . Therefore, 
Voted & enadled that if any Person, . . . shall suffer his or 
her Dog to come into either of the Places of Publick Wor- 
ship, ... in time of Divine Service, the Person, so offend- 
ing shall Forfeit and pay to the Use of the Poor . . . the 
Sum of Five shillings to be Recovered by the overseers of the 
Poor, before any of his Majesties Justices of y^ Pea. in this 
County." 

It was not without reason that many people were accus- 
tomed to bring their dogs to the church door. Sunday ser- 
vices were long, consuming much of the day, and those who 
attended from the outskirts of the town probably did not, 
even as late as 1734, feel wholly free from the danger of 
attack by a few marauding Indians not unwilling to take 
life by ambuscade if opportunity was presented. Within less 

59 



TWO HUNDRKD AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

than a decade men had been killed in Berwick and in Kit- 
tery, and the Eastern Indians had not yet concluded the 
final treaty of peace with Massachusetts Bay. Moreover, 
the flocks were for many years to come endangered by 
wolves, which were under the ban of a large bounty. Hence 
keen and faithful dogs were many and were deemed a protec- 
tion, both to life and property, and were undoubtedly quite 
constant companions of the masters and their families. 

The territorial limits of the Borough of Agamenticus, as 
well as the City of Gorgeana, were defined with reasonable 
certainty, and in 1652 the Town of York embraced the same 
limits, which remain today substantially unchanged.* Aside 
from the lots parcelled out to the first settlers, there remained 
a great tradl of wild and primeval land mostly lying back 
from the river and coast. This was the "Comon lands" held 
by the town, from which for good cause lots were granted by 
vote of the freeholders and laid out to new settlers and 
worthy residents. The grant would be by brief vote, of 
which the following is a fair example: "Granted to Mr: 
Sam" Doniel fifteen acres of I^and between the I,and of 
Stephen Preble de®*^ and y^ Little fresh Brook cal'd the 
fresh water, if he can find it Cleer of all former Grants." 
Subsequently the grantee would see that his grant was duly 
"laid out" and surveyed by the town surveyor and entered on 
the town records. Occasionally the vote was coupled with 
the condition that the grantee should "come and settle in 
this town." Such are quite frequent immediately following 
the devastation of 1692. Among the earliest and choicest 

*It will be noted that the northeasterly boundary has been some- 
what extended. See city limits, p. 38. 

60 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINB. 



grants were those "for the use of y* Ministry," some of 
which are still held by the First Parish. 

By 1732 the remaining common lands lay well inland 
around Mount Agamenticus. Becoming more inaccessible, 
it was less practicable for the town as a body to manage them, 
especially to prevent trespassing and cutting of timber. 
Hence in that year it sought a "just & equal method to 
order & dispose of the Common and undivided Land." 
Fifteen leading citizens were constituted a committee. Some 
months later their report was made and rejedled ; "and after 
long Debates" and an adjournment, it was "severally put 
to vote how many of Eight shares each man shall have — 
None to have more than Eight Shares." About three hun- 
dred shareholders were thus constituted, and thenceforth 
became the Proprietors of the Common Lands. This body 
held meetings and kept its organization until about 1820. 
By that time all of the original tradl, however remote, 
embraced in the grants of Gorges and his agents, had been 
reduced to individual possession. 

In 1743 the town "Granted unto Such Person or Persons 
as will accept of & undertake it, Liberty to Build a Bridge at 
their own Cost over York River, Some where between Col. 
Harmons Wharfe and Mr. Donnells Point of Rocks, above 
the Ferry : Provided there be a sufficient way Left for Sloops 
to Pass & Repass, and the Inhabitants to have free liberty 
Pass over the Same without any thing to Pay. (Francis 
Raynes enters his Desent aGainst the above or last Vote.)" 

"Voted that if said Bridge shall be built over said River, 
it Shall be, by Capt. Samuel Sewalls Wharfe. (Thomas 
Donnell enters his desent aGainst the Last Vote.)" 



61 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Why Francis Raynes, who lived on the other side of 
the river, objedled to passing over both free and dryshod 
instead of by boat cannot be well imagined. Probably 
Thomas Donnell was protedling his ferry interests. This was 
the beginning of an agitation which, in 1757, resulted in the 
constru(5lion of the first pile drawbridge in America. The 
builder was Samuel Sewall, an engineer of wide reputation, 
who was engaged years later in the construdlion of the first 
Charles River bridge. Soundings were made and the length 
of each pile made accordingly ; and all four were then joined 
by a cap piece and braced. This section, or pier, was then 
floated to its proper place and driven home by a heavy log 
arranged as a trip hammer, rather than as the modern pile 
driver. Major Sewall's plans still exist and may be seen in 
the Gaol Museum. Those who saw the ingeniously con- 
trived float of Mr. George Main in the historical parade of 
August 5th, could gain an excellent idea of the method of 
construcflion of the original bridge. It is said that some 
of the original piles may still be found protruding from the 
mud under the present bridge, which is a substantial con- 
tinuation of the original strudlure, repaired and strengthened 
from time to time to meet the increasing burdens. 

In 1740 it was voted "that the Select Men take into their 
charge all the Great Gunns that belong to the Town & keep 
them in their possession, till further orders," and seven years 
later it was voted "That Capt. Nath" Donnell, Capt. Samuel 
Sewall and Samuel Bragdon Jn*" be and hereby are Impow- 
ered to dispose of the Great Guns belonging to this Town, 
and Purchas Smaller on [es] with the Produce of them, for 
the Use of this Town according to their discression, and to 
be dun as soon as Conveniently may be." 

62 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Two of these remained in existence until quite recent years, 
when the town, not realizing their historical value, in a 
spasm of economy allowed them to be sold as old iron for 
ballast to the captain of a coasting schooner. One was taken 
out at a down-east port and used at a Fourth-of-July cele- 
bration, where it burst. The other sunk with the schooner. 
How old the "Great Guns" were no one knows, but tradi- 
tion says they were sent over by Gorges. 

In these vigorous temperance times in the State of Maine 
it is of interest to learn the local sentiment of a century and 
a half ago relative to liquor legislation, although we do not 
know how stringent the proposed bill may have been. 

"At a I,egal Town Meeting holden in York, Aug* i, 1754, 
Jeremiah Moulton, Esq., chosen Moderator. 

"The extradl of the Bill relating to the Private Consumption 
of Spirituous I^iquors, within this Province, with his Excel- 
lency, the Govern" Speech thereon being read, and, after 
mature consideration and Debate upon the same ; 

"Voted, That the said Bill (in the apprehention of the 
Town) is Grievous, burthensome and Inconsistent with the 
natural Rights of every private Person & Family : . . . and 
that Mr. John Bradbury, their Representative, not only con- 
tinue his Endeavours against the said Bills passing, and there- 
by comply with the Sentiments of his Constituents, but also 
Return his Excellency the Thanks of this Town, for his 
Paternal care of their Rights and Privileges, so dear to them, 
and giving them opportunity of standing up for the same, 
praying his Excellency the Bill may not pass into a Law." 

On November 20th, 1772, the Town of Boston, at a legal 
meeting received the report of its Committee of Correspond- 
ence, prepared by James Otis. There assembled, the towns- 

63 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

people took issue with the King and Parliament, protesting 
against the raising of revenue' without consent of the col- 
onies, the appointment of unconstitutional officers, supported 
by fleets and armies in times of peace — twelve men-of-war 
were then in Boston harbor — the restrictions on manufac- 
turers, and many other grievances. They also voted to 
appeal to all towns in the colony "that the collected wisdom 
and fortitude of the whole people might dictate measures 
for the rescue of their happy and glorious constitution."* 
"These worthy New Englanders," said Chatham, as he read 
the report, "ever feel as Old Englanders ought to do." Act- 
ing on this appeal the freeholders of York assembled on 
Monday, December 28th, 1772, and took action which was in 
full accord with the movement for the colonial union, so soon 
to take formal shape, and develop beyond the control of royal 
governors and their misguided sovereign. 

York's action was as follows : 

"i. Resolved: That as the Inhabitants of this Town are 
faithful and loyal Subjects of his Most Gracious Majesty, 
King George the third, they are well Intitled to his most 
Gracious favour ; and to be protected and secured, not only 
in their natural and Constitutional Rights as Englishmen, 
Christians and Subjects ; but in all and every the Rights and 
Priviledges contained in the Royal Charter of the Province. 

"2. Resolved^ as the opinion of this Town, that divers of 
those Rights, L,iberties and Priviledges have been broken in 
upon and much Infringed, to the great Grievance of this 
Town, and Justly alarming to the Province. 

"3. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Town, It's 
highly necessary some just and reasonable measures be 

♦Bancroft, Vol. Ill, p. 423. 

64 



OP THK TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



adopted for the Speedy Redress of such Grievances, so 
burdensome and Distressing to us : which if made known to 
our most Gracious Sovereign — we cant but flatter ourselves 
(as our cause is so just) that would be pleased to remove 
them. 

"4. Voted, that our Representative at the Gener^ Court, 
use his utmost Influence and Endeavors for the speedy 
Redress of our Grievances, in such wise moderate and pru- 
dent way and manner, as shall appear to him most fit, 
& likely to take effedt ; and as his Wisdom and Judgment 
shall dictate. 

"5, Voted, that the Clerk give out a Copy of the Proceed- 
ings of the Town at this Meeting to the Select Men, who are 
desired to Transmit the same to the Selectmen of Boston ; 
with the Thanks of this Town to that Town for the early 
care they have taken of our Invaluable Rights and Privi- 
ledges, and the Zeal they have for preserving the same." 

Thomas Bragdon, Esquire, was the town's representative 
at the General Court which convened at Boston, January 
6, 1773, in a memorable session, which bafiied Governor 
Hutchinson and transmitted the proceedings of Boston in 
organizing provincial Committees of Correspondence, to 
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. Two months later the 
burgesses of Virginia, led by I^ee, Carr and Patrick Henry, 
responded to the suggestions of the Massachusetts legislators, 
and thus laid the foundation for the union of the colonies. 

While it is not claimed that York outdistanced all other 
towns in hurling defiance at his Brittanic Majesty, yet it is 
evident that its leaders were men of affairs, keen, able, and 
possessing in full measure the pervading spirit of free govern- 
ment. They knew and could draw the distinction between 

65 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



so-called traitors, or revolutionists, and God-fearing English- 
men protesting against oppression. Did Otis or Hancock 
or Adams speak more clearly than the following expression ? 

"At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of 
the Town of York, regularly assembled at the Town House, 
on Monday the 20th. Day of Janry, 1774, 

' 'The Hon^^* John Bradbury Esq. chosen Moderator. 

"The Town immediately proceed to choose a Com'^* 
namely : The Hon^^^ John Bradbury, Esq*" Thomas Bragdon 
Esq*^ Capt. Joseph Holt, Capt. Dan' Bragdon, Capt. Edward 
Grow & Mr. John Kingsbury to consider in what manner the 
Town's Sentiments may be best expressed on the present 
Important Crisis, and make Report to this Meeting upon y^ 
Adjournment tomorrow. 

"Voted this Meeting be Adjourned to tomorrow, two 
oClock afternoon. 

"Upon the Adjournment viz* : Tuesday Jan. 21st. two 
oClock afternoon : 

"The said Com*^^ Reported, which, with the Amendments, 
is as follows : 

"The Com**^ appointed by the Town to Consider in what 
manner the Sentiments may be best express' d on the present 
Crisis, beg leave to Report: 

"That the People in the British American Colonies, by 
their Constitution of Government, have a Right to Freedom, 
and an Exemption from every Degree of Oppression & 
Slavery. 

"That it is an Essential Right of Freemen to have the dis- 
posal of their own Property, and not be Tax'd by any Power, 
over which they have no Control. 

"That the Parliamentary Duty I,aid upon Teas I^anded in 

66 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



America for the express purpose of raising a Revenue, is in 
Effect a Tax upon the Americans, without their consent. 

"That the several Colonies and Provinces in America have 
ever Recognized the Protestant Kings of Great Britian as 
their lawful Soverign : and it doth not appear, that any Par- 
liament have been parties to any Contract, made with the 
American Settlers in this howling Wilderness. 

"That this Town approve the Constitution Exertions & 
Struggles made by the Opulent Colonies through the Conti- 
nent, for preventing so fatal a Catasthrophe, as is Implied in 
Taxation without Representation: and that we are, and 
always will be ready, in every Constitutional Way, to give all 
assistance in our Power to prevent so Dire a Calamity. 

"That a Dread of being Enslaved ourselves, and, of Trans- 
mitting the Chains to our Posterity, is the Principle Induce- 
ment to these Measures. 

"Voted that the Sincere Thanks of this Town are Justly 
due, and hereby are given all such Persons in this, and the 
several Provinces & Colonies on the American Continent, 
especially to our Brethren of the Town of Boston, so far as 
they have Constitutionally exerted themselves in the Support 
of their Just Liberties and Privileges." 

Daniel Moulton, Town Clerk, adds: "Which was Read 
Paragraff by Paragraff and accepted, and, thereupon Voted 
that the Town Clerk Transmit a fair Copy to the Town Clerk 
of Boston: and then the Meeting was dissolved." 

The news from Lexington reached York about nine o'clock 
on the evening of April 20th. Before the next sundown a 
company of over sixty men, under Capt. Johnson Moulton, 
equipped and provisioned, had marched from the town and 
crossed the Piscataqua to join the troops around Boston. 

67 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Thus, beyond question, York has the distinction of having 
sent forth from the State the first soldiers in the struggle for 
liberty,* 

On this same twenty-first of April, the remaining citizens 
assembled and in meeting 

"Voted that the several Constables as have any of the pub- 
lic Moneys of this Prov'^^ in their Hands, or have any to 
Gather, & have hitherto neglected to pay the same: That 
they forthwith Collect and pay the same to Henry Gardner, 
Esq*" agreeable to the proposal of the Provincial Congress: 
and that this Town will Indemnify them for their so doing. 

"Voted that if the Constables are Deficient in their Collec- 
tions or any part thereof, such Deficiency shall be hired and 
sent up by the Selectmen as soon as possible to the said 
Gardner. 

"Voted that Messrs. John Swett, Edw*^ Grow, Sam' Har- 
ris, Joseph Grant & Jere** Weare be a Com*^^ to Correspond 
with the several Towns in this Province. 

"Voted that there be a Military Night Watch at the Har- 
bour's Mouth, Constantly kept: of four men each night: two 
on each Side and the Col" of the Regiment of Militia be 
desired to regulate the same, and to include those of the 
Alarm lyist. 

"Voted that the Selectmen at the Towns expense procure 
a sufficient quantity of Indian Corn, as they shall Judge 
necessary for the Town's Stock, & to be delt out according 
to their discretion." 

The meeting further" Voted that the Com*^* of Inspection, 
with Jotham Moulton, Esq. Sam' Junkins & Matthew Richie, 

*See "Capt. Johnson Moiilton's Company," address by Nathan 
Goold, Esq., Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., 1899. 

68 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



be a Com*** to Waite on Jonath" Sayward, Esq, for a View 
of such lyetf or Letters as he has receivd. from the late 
Gov*" Hutchinson, or others & make such Remarks upon the 
same as they think necessary & make report to this meeting 
on the adjournment. Town having been somewhat uneasy 
and disaffected with conduct of Jonathan Sayward, Esq. sup- 
posing to be not hearty & free for the support & Defence of 
our Rights, I^iberties & Privileges in this Dark & difficult 
Day, but rather favoured the contrary : He came into the 
Meeting & made a Speach upon the Subject : Whereupon 
the Town Voted it was Satisfa<5tory." 

Jonathan Sayward, thus suspedled of holding Tory princi- 
ples, regained the confidence of his townsmen. Nothing is 
known to confirm their suspicion. It is not improbable that 
the Governor did correspond with Sayward, since the latter 
was a man of influence in the community and wealthy for 
those days. For many successive years, prior to the Revolu- 
tion, he had been York's representative to the General Court 
at Boston. Undoubtedly he had then formed the acquaint- 
ance of Hutchinson, as a fellow representative from Boston. 
To men of Sayward's type and interests, and of his years, it 
meant much to take the irretraceable step of his townsmen 
on that twenty-first of April. With many other York men 
Sayward was in the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, 
commanding the sloop "Sea Flower." His ancestors were 
mill owners as early as 1658. He engaged largely in South- 
ern and West Indian trade. His wharves are gone, but his 
house stands, with its white oak sills, upon the banks of 
York River at the harbor. On its walls hangs the portrait 
by Copley of the only daughter, the beautiful Sally Sayward, 
together with the portraits of her parents by Blackburn, the 

69 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

teacher of Copley. Sally Sayward married Nathaniel Bar- 
rell, an old York family originating in Hertfordshire, Eng- 
land.* 

June 5th, 1776, a month before the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the town instructed Joseph Simpson, Esq., its rep- 
resentative, to advise the General Court: "That if the 
Hon''^^ Congress should for the safety of the Colonies declare 
them Independent of the Kingdom of great Britain, they 
the sd inhabitants will Solemnly engage with their Lives and 
Fortunes to Support them in the measure." 

Under date of the 12th of August of that year, recorded in 
the plain, even handwriting of Daniel Moulton,t for nearly 
forty years town clerk, appears in full the Declaration of 
Independence. This was spread upon the records pursuant 
to an order of Council, July 17, 1776, providing that *'a copy 
be sent to the minister of each Parish and of every denomina- 
tion within this State : and that they severally be required to 
read the same to their respective congregations as soon as 
divine service is ended in the afternoon of the first Lord's 
Day after they shall have reced it, — and after such Publica- 
tion thereof to deliver the said Declaration to the clerks of 
their several towns . . . who are hereby required to record 
the same . . . there to remain as a perpetual MEMORIAL 
thereof." 

Throughout the revolution the town's records show that it 
bristled with patriotism ; and the part it played in the great 
struggle has never been adequately told. The majority, both 
of officers and of rank and file, who on April 21st, 1775, set 

*The old Sayward house is now the summer home of Rev. Mr. 
Wheeler of Worcester. 
tDaniel Moulton was son of Col. Jeremiah Moulton. 

70 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



out on their forced march toward Lexington, later saw active 
service, Capt. Johnson Moulton became lyieutenant Colonel 
of the 7th Continental Regiment under Prescott, and took 
part in the Ivong Island campaign. Other York men in the 
war were Capt. James Donnell, who was in the siege of Bos- 
ton, at Ticonderoga, at the surrender of Burgoyne, at Valley 
Forge, and at Monmouth. Another was Maj. Samuel Darby, 
who commanded a York County company at Valley Forge 
and who saw hard service elsewhere. 

Bounties were repeatedly provided, guns, ammunition and 
clothing supplied, and every effort was apparently made to 
fill the town's quota ; saving only one occasion in September, 
1777, when meeting declined to vote money "for the encour- 
agement of those who will enlist in the Continental Army for 
three years or during the War." 

lycss than a month previous every militia man who marched 
"to the Reinforcement of the American Army and continue 
in service, till the last of Nover. next" was voted six pounds 
"as a Bounty over and above . . . Wages and Rations." This 
action, although patriotic in intention, was but a sample of 
that which Gen. Washington repeatedly protested against, 
and from which the American forces, both north and south, 
suffered so much in effectiveness. During the first years of 
the war short enlistments and the consequent uncertainties 
and constant changes in the forces were a source of weakness 
and positive danger to the cause of independence. Other 
and even sufl&cient reasons, which do not appear of record, 
may have led to this action of September, 1777 ; we trust 
so. On no other occasion does it appear that York failed 
to aid and encourage both the Continental army and the 
militia. 

71 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

For half a century York's foremost citizen was David 
Sewall. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1755, a 
classmate and lifelong friend of John Adams. He was 
admitted an attorney in 1760, and thenceforth for sixty- four 
years, he was closely identified with the town's interests, his 
name appearing on almost every recorded page of the town 
meetings. 

It was during the administration of President Washington 
that he built his beautiful, stately residence, now known as 
Coventry Hall,* the summer home of Rev. Frank Sewall, 
D. D., of Washington, D. C. Here Judge Sewall entertained 
President Munroe on his "progress" eastward. The Presi- 
dent traveled in his private coach, the horses being furnished 
en route, and the ofiicers of the York County regiment of 
militia, mounted, acting as escort from the Maine line. The 
President was met at the Wilcox tavern by Judge Sewall and 
escorted with great solemnity to his mansion on the hill. 

David Sewall was buried in the old burying ground. 
Upon his tombstone is engraved : 

Consecrated to the memory of the 

Hon. David Sewall, LL. D. 
An elevated benevolence was happily directed by an 
enlightened intellect. Conscientious in duty he was ever 
faithful in its discharge. Piety with patriarchal simplicity of 
manners conspired to secure him universal esteem. 

*Coventry Hall is named from Coventry, England, whence Henry 
Sewall, son of the mayor of the town, migrated to Newbury, Mass., in 
1634 ; from him and his wife, Jane Dvimmer, are descended the Sewalls 
of New England. For a further account of Coventry Hall and its 
building, with portrait of David Sewall, see the article "In an old 
Colonial Library," in the New England Magazine for December, 1895, 
by Rev. Frank Sewall. 

72 



OF THB TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



His home was the abode of hospitality & friendship. In 
him the defenceless found a protector, the poor a Benefactor, 
the Community a Peacemaker, Science, Social Order & Reli- 
gion an eflScient Patron. 

Distinguished for his patriotism, talents and integrity, he 
was early called to important public offices which he sustained 
with fidelity and honor. 

Having occupied the Bench of the Supreme Court of the 
State and District Court of the U. States with dignified 
uprightness for forty years without one failure of attendance, 
he retired from public life in 1818 and died Oct. 22, 1825 aged 
XC years. 

DEATH but entombs the body, 
LIFE the Soul. 

The war of 18 12 was hardly more popular in York than in 
most other New England seaboard towns. Yet a volunteer 
company was maintained, and the river's mouth was guarded 
by a battery on Fort Head. The ramparts there are still 
quite clearly defined. Moreover, on one occasion the towns- 
people had an opportunity to show their mettle, and they 
responded in no uncertain way. It happened that in the 
summer of 1814 the British fleet, with H. M. S. Bulwark, 
seventy-four guns, flagship, was blockading Portsmouth and 
the adjacent ports. The primary object was to destroy ship- 
ping at Kittery navy yard. The British had captured a small 
pink-sterned schooner named the Juno, put swivel-guns 
aboard and with an armed crew were capturing and burning 
unsuspecting coastwise craft. One Sunday while the Juno 
was pursuing a fisherman up the coast several of the towns- 
people saw the chase and with muskets hurried out to the 
Nubble. Concealing themselves they signalled the pursued 
to stand in close. In she came by the point, and the Juno 



73 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

followed. As the latter passed the half dozen men behind 
rocks opened fire. When a Donnell fired a red-shirted sailor 
fell. The British ineffectually returned the shots, although 
a bullet spatted upon the flat rock which Donnell had placed 
before himself. The Juno was forced to bear off, and the 
fisherman escaped. The shooting and death of the British 
sailor was confirmed by captives then on the Juno, but who 
were soon after released. All this fusilade led to further 
alarm. A man rushed to the doorway of the First Parish 
meeting-house, but stood silent until Rev. Mr. Messenger fin- 
ished his prayer. He then announced, "I think the British 
are landing on the Nubble." The congregation was dis- 
missed, the York artillery, an independent company, mus- 
tered and with its single field-piece forthwith started to meet 
the enemy. When the company had reached Long Beach 
the cause of the alarm became known and the march ended. 

The spirit which hastened those untrained militiamen to 
meet British seamen was the same which impelled their 
fathers toward lycxington on that April morning in 1775. 
They thought, with good reason, that the enemy was at 
hand, yet they did not know in what numbers ; nor did they 
wait to learn. Forthwith they went out to meet him, pre- 
pared to do their best. 

South of the meeting-house lies the old burying ground, 
the resting place of generations both known and forgotten. 
For two and a half centuries it has been God's Acre until no 
vacant spot remains within its enclosure, in fact today the 
present generation walks and drives unwittingly over the 
graves of its ancestors beneath the highway which has 
encroached upon its eastern side. Among the graves com- 
monly pointed out is the so-called "Witch's Grave" with a 

74 




Sewall's Bridge, York River. 







"The Witch's Grave," Old Burying Ground. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



heavy stone slab resting its length between the headstone and 
footstone, but no witch lies buried here. A century ago this 
woman died and was buried. Her husband was about to 
remove from town, and to prevent the hogs, "well yoked and 
rigned as the law directs and allowed to go at large," from 
disturbing the grave, he considerately placed the heavy stone 
across it. 

Upon a rocky knoll, facing the old court house, is prob- 
ably the oldest public building of the English colonies in 
America, the old county prison, built in 1653-4. C)n the 
first floor is a massive stone dungeon. On the floor above 
are cells of hewn oak timbers with windows grated by double 
and triple rows of bars. The prisoners received their food 
through apertures heavily barred and fortified by sections of 
mill saws. Undoubtedly each cell has contained as prisoners 
not only respectable men whose only offense was an inability 
to pay a small debt, but with them hardened criminals, drunk- 
ards, vagabonds and "common railers and brawlers." Still 
this jail could not but compare favorably with the damp, 
revolting prisons of other States, such as the underground 
cells used in Connecticut. To those prisoners who could 
give bond for the purpose was given the "I^iberty of the 
yard," the "yard" consisting merely of certain prescribed 
limits extending each way from the Gaol. One of the limits 
was the door of the meeting-house "to the end Persons 
having the Liberty of the yard may attend Public Worship," 
It was not uncommon for a prisoner to be ' 'sold for the term 
of three years to pay costs and charges." A schoolmaster 
was imprisoned for inability to "furnish bond to keep the 
peace"; and another of the same vocation, also styled "Gen- 



75 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

tleman," was likewise punished for "teaching school without 
being qualified according to law." 

For more than two hundred years this old prison on the hill 
served to execute sentence upon evil doers. The story that 
its walls would tell must, from their very existence, be that 
of evil doing, suffering and perhaps of misguided persecu- 
tion.* Its adjuncts were the stocks, and the whipping post ; 
and from it have gone to the gallows on "Stage Neck," at 
York Harbor, at least two men to suffer death, while it 
has detained many others who were destined to receive cap- 
ital punishment. Its eredlion marks the downfall of a prom- 
ising Royalist colony, a community which enjoyed the favor 
of its ill-fated sovereign, and was the extravagant hope of its 
I,ord Palatine. For more than a generation there were those 
in Maine who wore with ill ease the collar of Massachusetts 
Bay ; and may not these stout old walls have been so 
promptly built not only to punish lawlessness, but also to 
be a veiled warning to those who would still in secret drink 
the health of the son of King Charles ? The Gaol has now 
come to a happier use under the care of the York Historical 
and Improvement Society, which maintains it as a museum 
of local antiquities. Here the society has secured from the 
townspeople a loan collection of heirlooms and relics which 
does credit to bygone days in the old town. 

Two of the colonial taverns remain at the Village, although 
both have long since ceased to be public houses and are now 
spacious summer residences of descendants of former owners. 
One, the old Wilcox Tavern, was built by Edward Emerson 
on land leased from the Parish. Its rear door opens diredlly 

*Por further account of the old Gaol see introductory article by the 
■writer, appearing in catalogue of Museum at Gaol, 1903. 

76 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



among the graves of the burying ground, where close at hand 
lies Norton Woodbridge, its keeper in Revolutionary days. 
It passed to Captain Wilcox, a gentleman of the old school, 
and has sheltered many men famous in state and national 
affairs, notably John Adams and James Munroe. It is now 
owned by Walter M. Smith, Esq., of Stamford, Connecticut. 

The other tavern has passed down to Hon. Edward O. 
Emerson, of Titusville, Pennsylvania, a descendant of an old 
York family. In Revolutionary days it was occupied by 
Paul Dudley Woodbridge, an ardent loyalist, whose sign 
expressly stated that here was entertainment for none but 
patriots. 

The old Stacy Tavern, demolished in 1870, deserves a 
word of remembrance. It was located on the brow of the 
hill on the southerly side of Meeting House Creek, near the 
bridge. In earliest days, before the Saywards built the dam 
across the mouth of the creek for their tide mills, this water 
was navigable for small craft up to the tavern. An old 
timber taken from it, marked "1634," indicates the year of 
its eredlion. The house was notable for the great size of its 
chimney, which was said to have been so built as to include 
in its foundation a considerable part of the cellar. It was a 
popular meeting place a century and more ago. William 
Stacy, who lived in the tavern, was on the Ranger and 
landed with Paul Jones at the burning of Whitehaven. 
There are those still living who remember the old Revolu- 
tionary pensioner, who so often told his boyhood experiences 
sailing under the little Scotchman. 

Numerous other old taverns, and quasi public houses, have 
long since disappeared or wholly changed in chara(5ler. 

Travel in the earliest days was either by boat along the 

77 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

coast to adjacent ports, mostly to the south, or by mere 
bridle paths skirting the shore. Of course there were high- 
ways before 1700, but they could hardly have been wrought 
roads. Those first mentioned are not formally laid out, but are 
simply strips "a pole and a half or two poles wide" reserved 
as a path or way in making grants, the exadl location being 
determined largely by subsequent usage. The first highway 
to be duly laid out and recorded was in 1699, being known 
as the "County Road Through the Town." It extended 
from "Wells over the seawall of Long Sands, through York 
Village and on to Berwick, with a branch to "the lower End 
of the Town . . . along a way as has Bin formerly" to the 
Sayward mill. One of the very earliest ways was down over 
Stage Neck, across the ferry to the south side of York River, 
through or near the Allen estate, thence on to Brave Boat 
Harbor to another ferry, and continuing to the Piscataqua 
plantations. William Hilton, before referred to, a man of 
great physical size and strength, was the ferryman at Stage 
Neck. The first recorded adl of the new town in 1652 was 
that Hilton shall have the use of the ferry for twenty years, 
"and he is duly to attend the sd. ferry with Cannoes sufii- 
cient for the safe transportation both of strangers and Towns- 
men." The toll was "two pence a piece every stranger & 
four pence apiece for every beast or horse which he swim- 
meth over, or that are swum over by any strangers them- 
selves." Other ferries were established farther up York 
River, one just below the site of Sewall's Bridge, and 
another near Rice's Bridge. Sylvester Stover also had a 
ferry at Cape Neddick in 1652. 

Soon after 17 10 a line of post riders was established 
extending from Portsmouth as far as Philadelphia, and a 

78 




6 ^ 



w 


X! 




Td 


^' 


O 




o 


^ 


Ph 


>1 


o 






^ 


W 


3 


u 


Q 


;z; 




w 


s 


Q 


03 




Ah 


w 




e^ 




« 




w 








f* 




g 




D 




^2 





OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



little later into Virginia. Doubtless from this time, or at 
least after the close of Indian hostilities in 1 7 1 3 , York was in 
regular weekly communication with towns to the south. In 
those early days of the post the weekly mail would probably 
consist of little more than a dozen letters, a package or two, 
and a few copies of the News-Letter (1704), or the Boston 
Gazette (17 19), or the New Hampshire Gazette (1756). 
Probably more travel and news matter passed by water than 
overland. But by Revolutionary times a regular system of 
post riders passed through, and as far north as Falmouth, 
now Portland. The writer has no definite information as to 
when the first line of coaches, or stages, made regular trips 
through the town. Not unlikely it was as early as 1770. 

A century and more ago the population of York was some- 
what larger than is its strictly resident population today ; but 
its property valuation was probably not one-tenth as much. 
The West India trade was considerable, as was the coastwise 
shipping. Also fishermen sailed both to the Grand Banks 
and to "Georges" as late as 1850. It was not uncommon for 
schooners and some larger craft to be built along the shores 
of York River. One shipyard was well up river in the 
vicinity of Scotland,* and another near Marshall's wharf, 
below Sewall's Bridge. The latter yard and adjoining wharf 
property were in very early times an active place of business. 
Donnell's ferry was at this point, and later Capt. Joseph 
Tucker, in Revolutionary times and for some years later, 
carried on business here and built several vessels. Capt. 
Tucker was a man of considerable prominence in town affairs 
and a representative to the General Court at Boston, His 

*A schooner was built inland near "Beech Ridge" and hauled to the 
launching place by oxen. 

79 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

dwelling house, located at the head of his wharf, was 
removed about 1870, and much of its timber entered into the 
original structure embraced in the present Yorkshire Inn at 
the Harbor. Other points of commercial activity were 
Captain Samuel Sewall's wharf, on the south side of the river 
near the bridge which bears his name ; also the Sayward 
wharves of very early times, later owned by the Barrells, 
located just south of the present railroad bridge. Below 
these were those of the Harmons, the Varrells and the early 
Donnells. From Cape Neddick River the old-fashioned 
sloops and smaller schooners carried on a general coastwise 
traffic, especially the shipping of wood and lumber. 

The schooners of a century ago, and less, did not average 
near one hundred tons burden, while the ships did not, as a 
rule, exceed three hundred tons. We say that they and their 
cargoes were small and insignificant. True it is ; but those 
were the days of small things commercially, measured by the 
vast industries of today. Yet then the great commercial 
activity of New England seaports consisted largely in the 
traffic of just such craft as sailed in and out of the port of 
York, a town of far greater relative population than now. 
Had it kept relative pace numerically with Boston since the 
close of the Revolution it would now be a city of nearly 
ninety thousand inhabitants. Of course no clipper ships 
sailed out of this little river with its swift current and devious 
channel, but from the town have hailed some of their finest 
captains. 

It must have been about the middle of the last century that 
the future of York seemed least inviting. The steam railroad 
had been built inland, avoiding the town and diverting the 
travel which had hitherto passed through by stage coach, and 

80 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



which made "Marm Freeman's" at Cape Neddick one of the 
famous taverns on the post road between Boston and Port- 
land. It had also ceased to be the shire town, the courts 
were removed, and moreover, the shipping had dwindled to 
the few coasters and fishermen. 

The town's new industry began in the early seventies, 
when the first summer hotels and cottages were built ; and 
travelers, leaving the cars at Portsmouth, arrived in town 
dusty and weary from the ten miles' jaunt in a rocking stage- 
coach. But the air was invigorating, its wooded drives and 
quiet elm-shaded highways were attractive, and its firm, 
smooth beaches were unsurpassed. The steam railroad came 
in 1887 and supplanted the stage coach ; hotels and board- 
ing-houses multiplied and improved, and substantial cottages 
of summer residents more thickly dotted its rocky shores. 
The growth of the town as a summer resort, to which all 
energies are now more or less directly turned, has been espe- 
cially rapid during the last six or eight years. Within its 
limits have been developed four quite distinct summer vil- 
lages, York Harbor, York Beach and York Cliffs, beyond 
Cape Neddick River. Also along the sea wall betwixt 
"Long Sands" and "Bear Berry Marsh" of olden days, 
facing a splendid beach a mile and a half in length, is the 
fourth community, known as I^ong Beach. Even York Vil- 
lage, from earliest days the town's center in public affairs, is 
now being invaded by summer residents, not including those 
who come back to open ancestral halls. Thus "these parts," 
with a resident population of a trifle less than three thousand, 
annually, between the months of June and September, 
expand into a community of nearly ten thousand souls, who, 
to quote a Puritan soldier stationed in York two centuries 

81 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

ago, possess and are bent on "an abundance of levity," even 
though many come from Massachusetts Bay. 

Unlike many old New England towns York is not now 
decadent. Probably the man does not live who will see the 
town become of importance in commerce or in manufacturing 
industries. Its development is set along other lines which 
largely preclude the activities of commercial life. Its pros- 
perity lies in its cool, bracing air, its pure brooks and ponds, 
the winding tidal river, rugged shore line and firm beaches, 
in its green fields and groves of hickory, oak and pine. 
Nature has been lavish to this old town ; and its association 
with the beginnings of New England add a certain character 
and charm to its quiet nooks and corners. Thus naturally it 
has come to be the summer home of hundreds who here seek 
health, recreation or rest. 

York is a better town today than ever before, and its abid- 
ing prosperity and a surpassing future can best be assured by 
the well-directed energy of even a score of its citizens, mind- 
ful to preserve its natural beauties and zealous for every well 
directed civic movement. 

To use words from a prediction by its old Ivord Palatine, 
may it speedily become, even as never before, a "Fair Towne 
... a very flourishing place." 



82 




Hon. Kdward C. Moody, 

York, 

Petitioner to Town Meeting for Observance of 250th 

Anniversary. 



OF THB TOWN OF YORK, MAINF. 



1652 1902 

IproQtam 

OP THE CeIvEBRATION OF TH^ 

Zvoo 1bun^re^ an^ jfifttetb Hnntverear^ of 
the ZoMon of IJorft, nDaine, 

August 5, 1902. 



OFFICERS. 



The Committee of the Town 
ing, March, 1902: 

Mr. J. Perley Putnam, 
Mr. Joseph P. Bragdon, 
Mr. William T. Keene, 
Mr. Malcolm Mclntire, 
Mr. Henry Plaisted, 
Mr. Samuel T. Blaisdell, 
Mr. William O. Barrell, 
Mr. Josiah N. Norton, 



of York appointed at the Town Meet- 
Mr. Charles H. Junkins, 
Mr. Harry H. Norton, 
Mr. George F. Plaisted, 
Mr. J. Howard Preble, 
Mr, George K. Marshall, 
Mr. Joseph W. Simpson, 
Mr. Daniel Weare, 
Mr. John F. Plaisted. 



The Joint Committee of the Town and the Old York Historical and 
Improvement Society : 

Mr. J. Perley Putnam, Mr. Walter M. Smith, 

Mr. George F. Plaisted, Hon. E. O. Emerson, 

Mr. William T, Keene, Rev. Frank Sewall, D. D. 

83 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

General Secretary, Mr. George F. Plaisted, 

Treasurer, Mr. Wilson M. Walker, 

President of the Day, Mr. Walter M. Smith, 

Marshal of the Parade, Mr. J. Perley Putnam. 

Committee on the Program and Invitations — Rev. Frank Sewall, 
D. D., Hon. Edward O. Emerson, Mr. Walter M. Smith. 

SPECIAL COMMITTEES. 

ON HISTORIC PARADE. 
Frank D. Marshall, LIv. B., Mrs. James T. Davidson, Mrs. F. 
Doubleday, Mrs. Hungerford, Miss Mary Louise Smith, Miss Theo- 
dosia Barrell, Miss Katherine E. Marshall, Miss Ruth Putnam, Miss 
Florence Paul, Miss Elizabeth Perkins, Mrs. George L,. Cheney, Miss 
Rachel K. Sewall, Miss Constance Emerson, Miss Elizabeth T. 
Sewall, Miss Ellen M. Dennett. 

ON MUSIC. 

Mr. George F. Plaisted. 

ON THE WATER CARNIVAI,. 

Messrs. Freeman Sewall, Eugene Sewall, Burleigh Davidson, 
Russell Cheney. 

ON FIREWORKS. 

Mr. Walter M. Smith. 

ON ENTERTAINMENT. 
Mr. W. T. Keene, Mr. N. H. Shattuck, 

Mr. Joseph P. Bragdon, Mr. Samuel A. Preble, 

Hon. John C. Stewart, Hon. E. O. Emerson, 

Mr. W. M. Walker, Mr. Frank D. MarshalL 

PRESS COMMITTEE. 
Mr. George F. Plaisted, Mr. Edwin D. Twombly, 

Mr. William J. Neal. 




Mr. J. Perley Putnam, 

York, 

Chairman of Board of Selectmen. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



ON SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 3rd, 

A UNION REUGIOUS SERVICE OF THANKFUI^ 
COMMEMORATION 

will be held in the 

Meeting House op the "First Church of Christ" 

IN York Vh,i^age, Organized 1662, 

WITH THE Music of the 0L,DEN TIME, 

AND Addresses by the REV. ELIHU SNOW, on the 

EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE AND CUSTOMS, 

AND BY THE REV. SIDNEY K. PERKINS, on 

The Churches and Ministers of the Town of York. 

The Rev. D. C. Abbott will describe the beginning of the "Meth- 
odist," and the Rev. John A. GOSS that of the "Christian" Church 
movements. 

Organist and Music Director, Miss Katherine E. Marshall. 

TUESDAY, August 5Th. 

At sunrise and sunset a Salute will be fired from the Palo Alto Gun 
on Paul Hill under direction of the Hon. Edward C. Moody, and the 
Church Bells will be rung. 

THE PARADE. 

Mr. J. Perley Putnam, Marshal. 

Aids. 
Mr. W. J. Simpson, Mr. Frank H. Ellis, 

Mr. W. T. Keene, Mr. Jos. P. Bragdon, 

Mr. A. M. Bragdon, Mr. Fred G. Winn. 

The Parade will form at 9 o'clock A. M., at York Beach, and at 
lo A. M. will move by Long Beach and York Harbor to York Village 
and York Corner, returning to York Village for Commemoration 
Exercises. 

85 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIBTH ANNIVERSARY 

ORDER OF PARADE. 

Marshal and Aids. 
Mounted Escort. 
The Marine Band of the Navy Yard at Kittery, Me. 
Detachment of United States Marines, Captain Russell, com- 
manding. 
Historical Parade Illustrating 
Incidents and Characters in the History of York. 
Kearsarge Fife and Drum Corps. 
Floral Parade. 
The Public Schools. 

TABI.EAUX ON FLOATS. 

I. 

1614. 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 

Unfolding his "Great Map of New England" before Prince 

Charles, who names this locality Boston, and Mt. Agamenticus 

"Snadoun Hill." 

II. 

163 1-2. 
COL. WALTER NORTON, 

and Colonists from Bristol, England, sent by Gorges to take 
possession "by which the foundation of the plantation was 

laid." 

III. 

1642. 

THOMAS GORGES, Mayor of Gorgeana, 

Roger Garde, Recorder; "Sergants of Ye White Rod," and 

Aldermen. 

IV. 

I652. 
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 

assumes control. Right Worshipful Sir Richard Bellingham 
and Sheriff Norton. Edward Godfrey refuses to submit, 
resolving to exercise jurisdiction "until it shall please Parlia- 
ment otherwise to order." 

86 




Hon. Edward O. Emerson, 

Titusville, Pa., 

Executive Committee. 



OF THK TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



V. 

I692. 
SACK AND MASvSACRE 

by French and Indians. Killing of Rev. Shubael Dummer, first 
pastor of the Parish, at his house near Roaring Rock. 

VI. 
CHRISTIAN SACHEM St. Aspinquid of Mt. Agamenticus. 

VII. 

1745-47- 
SIR WILLIAM PEPPERRELL 

presenting Col. Jeremiah Moulton with silver tankard, a gift 
from King George II. for valiant conduct at Louisburg. 

VIII. 
1761. 
MAJOR SAMUEL SEWALL 

builds "The Great Bridge" over York River; first pile draw- 
bridge in America. 

IX. 

1774. 
DANIEL MOULTON, 

Town Clerk, in Town Meeting reading "paragraph by para- 
graph," the resolutions asserting of "Right to Freedom," pro- 
testing against taxation without representation, and pledging 
support "especially to . . . brethren of the Town of Boston." 

X. 

1775. 
VOLUNTEERS 

("Men of the Alarm List") under Capt. Johnson Moulton, 

responding to the call from Lexington, April 21st, 1775 — first 

troops to leave Maine in the struggle for independence. 

XI. 

1816. 
PRESIDENT MONROE 

received by Judge David Sewall, escorted by officers of First 

Regiment of Maine Militia. 

87 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



XII. 
CHARACTERS. 

The Tithing Men. 

Pirate Trickey weaving his rope of sand. 

Palo Alto Cannon and veteran of Mexican War. 

Our Visitors from Auld Lang Syne. 



COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES, 

On the Green, in the Rear of the Town Hall. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 5th, 2 O'CLOCK P. M. 

MUSIC, THE MARINE BAND, 

R. L. Reinewald, Bandmaster. 

1. Grand March, "Tannhauser," Wagner 

2. Overture, "Fest," Leuhier 

3. International Fantasia, on Patriotic "Airs of Two 

Continents," arr. by Rollinson 

The Hon. Edward C. Moody will introduce the 
President of the Day, Mr. Walter M. Smith 

INVOCATION— The Rev. David B. Sewall, former Pastor 
of the First Parish Church. 

READING OF PSALM CXV.— The Rev. D. C. Abbott 
of the Methodist Church. 

COMMEMORATIVE HYMN, Isaac Watts 

Tune— ("St. Martin's.") 
Let children hear the mighty deeds 

Which God performed of old, 
Which in our younger years we saw. 
And which our fathers told. 

He bids us make His glories known. 

His words of power and grace ; 
And we'll convey His wonders down 

Through every rising race. 

88 




Mr. Gkorge F. Plaisted, 

York, 

Secretary of Executive Committee. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Our lips shall tell them to our sons, 

And they again to theirs, 
That generations yet unborn 

May teach them to their heirs. 

Thus shall they learn, in God alone 

Their hope securely stands, 
That they may ne'er forget His words 

But practice His commands. 

CITIZENS' WELCOME, by the Hon. John C. Stewart. 

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, by the President of the Day. 

ORATION, by the Hon. James Phinney Baxter, President of the 
Maine Historical Society and of the New England Genealogical 
and Historical Society. 

SINGING, led by the Band, "The Star Spangled Banner." 

Short addresses by distinguished guests, among whom will be 
Thomas Nelson Page, Litt. D., Samuel L. Clemens ["Mark Twain"], 
Litt. D., President Tucker of Dartmouth College, Francis L. Stetson, 
Esq., of New York, the Honorable Thomas B. Reed of New York and 
Major General Joshua L. Chamberlain, Ex-Governor of Maine. 

SINGING.— "America. ' ' 

BENEDICTION.— The Rev. Sidney K. Perkins. 

OPEN AIR CONCERT BY THE MARINE BAND, 
On the Village Green, from 6.30 to 7.30 P. M. 

ILIvUMINATED BOAT PARADE, 
On Lake Gorges from 8 to 9 o'clock. 

FIREWORKS. 

Promptly at 9 o'clock will begin an Aerial Display of Fireworks 
from the south shore of Lake Gorges, under the management of the 
celebrated Pain Co. 

89 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

The Maine Historical Society, at the invitation of the Committee, 
have made this celebration their Field Day for the present year. 
They will attend a reception given them by the Rev. and Mrs. Frank 
Sewall, at Coventry Hall, the old "Judge Sewall Mansion," between 
five and six o'clock. 

The OLD JAIL, erected in 1653 and still preserving its dungeons, 
court-room and sheriff's residence, now devoted to a Colonial Museum 
of valuable local relics, household utensils, books, manuscripts, com- 
missions, coats-of-arms, etc., will be open to visitors from 8 A. M. to 
6 P. M. Admission, 15 cents. Catalogues and Views for sale. 

RECEPTION ROOM. 

The upper hall in the Town House will be set apart as a reception 
room, for the convenience, during the day, of guests from abroad. 



90 




Rev. Fran.v vSewai,!,, D. D., 

Washington, D. C, 

Chairman Committee on Program and Invitations. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINK. 



darb of Unvltation. 

1652-1902 

The Joint Committee of the 

TOWN OF YORK, MAINE, 

and the Old York Historical and Improvement Society 
have the honour to invite 

to be present at the Celebration of the 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

of the 

Incorporation of the Town 

To be held 

On the Meeting-House Green of York Village, on 

Tuesday, August Fifth, Nineteen Hundred and Two at 

Two o'clock in the afternoon. 

J. Perlky Putnam, Chairman. 

Frank Sewali,, 
Edward O. Emerson, 
Wai^ter M. Smith, 

Committee on Invitations. 



91 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



(Bueets Ipreeent- 

Acceptances were received from the following invited 
guests, who were seated on the platform with the officers of 
the day during the exercises of Aug. 5th on the Village 
Green : The President, Secretary and Visiting Members of 
the Maine Historical Society ; Mr. Justice McKenna of the 
Supreme Court of the United States ; Gen. Joshua ly. Cham- 
berlain, Kx-Gov. of Maine; Woodbury Langdon, Ksq., 
New York; Francis Ivynde Stetson, Esq., New York; Dr. 
J. B. Ayer, Boston ; Hon. Edward S. Marshall, York ; John 
J. lyoud, Esq., Weymouth, Mass.; J. Windsor Brathwaite, 
Esq., Kennebunkport ; A. G. Cumnock, Esq., Lowell, Mass.; 
Hon. Thomas B. Reed, New York; William Dean Howells, 
Lritt. D., New York ; Thomas Nelson Page, Utt. D., Wash- 
ington, D.C.; Samuel ly. Clemens, Litt. D., New York ; Pres- 
ident Tucker, Dartmouth College ; Ex-Gov. F. W. Rollins, 
New Hampshire; Charles Eustis Hubbard, Esq., Boston; 
Hon. Augustus F. Moulton, Portland. 

lyCtters of appreciation and regret were received from the 
following : The President of the United States ; His Excel- 
lency the Governor of Maine ; His Excellency the Governor 
of Massachusetts ; the Honorable William P. Frye, U. S. 
Senator; the Honorable Eugene Hale, U. S. Senator; Presi- 
dent Eliot of Harvard University ; President Hyde of Bowdoin 
College; Hon. W. H. Moody, Secretary of the Navy; Hon. 

92 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINS. 



James O. Bradbury of Saco ; Capt. John Dennett of the U.S. 
Revenue Service; Charles Ray Palmer, L,L/. D., New Haven, 
Conn.; Charles F. Adams, Esq., Boston; John Fogg, Esq., 
New York; William Bruce King, Esq., Washington, D. C; 
James D. Smith, Esq., New York; Ex-Governor Henry B. 
Cleaves of Portland; Maj. Gen. Augustus B. Farnham, 
Adjutant General of Maine. 



93 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



persona who ^ool^ part in tbc Ibtstortc 
Ztablcaur, Huguat 5, 1902. 

Historic Float I. — Capt. John Smith unfolding the "Great 
Map of New England" before Prince Charles. Capt. Smith, 
Dr. E. C. Cook ; Prince Charles, Clarence Grant ; Pages, 
I^ewis Raynes and Marshall Putnam. 

Float II. — Col. Walter Norton and Colonists from England 
taking possession in behalf of Gorges. Col. Norton, Everett 
Goodwin ; Colonists, Percy Boyd, Elmer Patch, Aug. Han- 
son, Arthur Baker, Miss L,ucy Johnson and Miss Mary 
Hanson. 

Float III. — Thomas Gorges, mayor of Gorgeana, Roger 
Garde, Recorder, and "Sergants of Ye White Rod" and 
Aldermen. Sir Thomas, John Regan ; Roger Garde, Walter 
Hammil ; Sergeants, Joseph and Elroy Moulton ; Aldermen, 
John Dowd and Elwin Webster. 

Float IV. — Massachusetts Bay Colony's assumption of 
authority. Right Worshipful Sir Richard Bellingham and 
Sheriff Norton. Edward Godfrey refuses to submit. Sir 
Richard, Roy Titcomb ; Sheriff Norton, B, S. Woodward; 
Godfrey, William Staples. 

Float V. — Sack and Massacre by French and Indians. 
Killing of Rev. Shubael Dummer. Dummer, Arthur Brag- 
don ; French and Indians, Harvey Goodwin, Dallas Bickford, 
Edw. Woodward and Raymond Brewster. 

Float VI. — Christian Sachem St. Aspinquid, Howard 
Goodwin. 

94 




INIr. William T. Kkene, 

York, 

Executive Committee. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Float VII. — Sir William Pepperrell presenting Col. Jere- 
miah Moulton with silver tankard, a gift from King George 
II., for valiant conduct at Louisburg. Sir William, Samuel 
Thompson ; Col, Jeremiah Moulton, Edward Thompson. 

Float VIII. — Building of Sewall's Bridge by Major 
Samuel Sewall. Major Sewall, Geo. Main ; assistants, Jef- 
ferson Main, Benjamin Kimball, Ed. Kimball and Josiah 
Murphy. 

Float IX. — Town Clerk Daniel Moulton reading the first 
declaration of independence, "paragraph by paragraph." 
Daniel Moulton, Willis G. Moulton. 

No. X. — Minute Men. George Gray, captain ; Chas. 
Blake, ist lieutenant ; forty men from York Volunteer Fire 
Company. 

Float XI. — President Monroe, received by Judge David 
Sewall. President Monroe, John Young ; Judge Sewall, 
William Card. 

Float XII. — Pirate Trickey, binding sand with a rope, 
Gardner Donnell. Palo Alto Cannon, 1847 and 1865. Our 
Visitors from Auld Lang Syne. 

The excellence of the historical parade was due to the inde- 
fatigable efforts of the special committee on Historic Parade, 
Frank D, Marshall, Esq., Mrs. James T. Davidson, Mrs. 
F. Doubleday, Mrs. Hungerford, Miss Mary I^ouise Smith, 
Miss Theodosia Barrell, Miss Katharine E. Marshall, Miss 
Ruth Putnam, Miss Florence Paul, Miss Rachel Kenyon 
Sewall, Miss Elizabeth Trufant Sewall, Miss Elizabeth 
Perkins, Mrs. George h. Cheney and Miss Ellen M. Dennett. 

The ladies of the Committee rode in the stage-coach from 
York Beach to the Village Green wearing costumes suitable 
to "Our Visitors from Auld Lang Syne." 

95 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



Commemorative lexerclses on tbe IDtllage 
(Breen. 

The Hon. Edward C. Moody addressed the assemblage as 
follows : 

''''Ladies and Getitlemen, Fellow Citizejis : 

"In the warrant calling the annual town meeting of York 
held March 13th this present year, an article appeared on the 
petition of six men — Wilson M. Walker, Albert M. Bragdon, 
A. H. Bowden, W. T. Keene, E. F. Hobson and one other 
— To see if the town would vote to commemorate its 250th 
anniversary. It so voted. The York Historical Society 
joined hands with the town. The booming of cannon, the 
ringing of bells, the strains of martial music, the elaborate 
decorations, the passing of the splendid parade through our 
streets, all speak thus far in memory of the olden days. 
And now we shall be told of those who founded and fostered 
this ancient borough. 

" 'What was his name ? I do not know his name. 
I only know he heard God's voice, and came : 
Brought all he loved across the sea, 
To live and work for God — and me ; 
Felled the ungracious oak ; 
With rugged toil 
Dragged from the soil 
The thrice gnarled roots and stubborn rock ; 
With plenty filled the haggard mountain side ; 
And when his work was done, without memorial died. 

96 




Mr. Walter M. Smith, 

Stamford, Conn., 

President of the Day. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



No blaring trumpet sounded out his fame : 

He lived, he died — I do not know his name. 

No form of bronze and no memorial stones 

Show me the place where lie his mouldering bones : 

Only a cheerful village stands, 

Built by his hardened hands ; 

Only one thousand homes, 
Where every day 
The cheerful play 
Of love and hope and courage comes ; 
These are his monuments, and these alone — 
There is no form of bronze; and no memorial stone.' 

"My friends, I am not here to weary you. It is a public 
honor, my personal pleasure, to present to you the President 
of the York Historical Society as the President of the day, 
Mr. Walter M. Smith." 

Mr. Smith's Remarks. 
Mr. Moody, Ladies and Gentlemen ; 

For the distinguished honor of presiding over this assem- 
bly I am indebted, sir, to your committee. I thank you for 
your kindly introduction. In making my grateful acknowl- 
edgment of your courtesy, I desire to voice the sentiment of 
your committee, and of your fellow townsmen, in according 
to you, sir, the inception of the movement which has culmi- 
nated in this tribute to Old York. 

Shall we not, with grateful hearts, reverently bow our 
heads while Rev. David B. Sewall asks God's blessing upon 
this gathering. 

Then followed the invocation by the Rev. David B. 
Sewall, former pastor of the First Parish Church. 

This was followed by the reading of Psalm CXV by the 

97 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Rev. S. C. Abbott, of the Methodist Church, and the sing- 
ing of the Commemorative Hymn by Isaac Watts, '%et 
Children Hear the Mighty Deeds." 

The following letter from the President of the United 
States was then read: 

White House, Washington, July 23, 1902. 
My dear Sir: 

Your favor of the 19th instant has been received, and the President 
has requested me to assure you that he warmly appreciates the 
cordial invitation which you extend to him. 

It would afford the President genuine pleasure to be present at the 
celebration to which you refer, and he regrets that plans already made 
will preclude him from sending an acceptance. 

Thanking you in the President's behalf for your thoughtfulness 

and courtesy, believe me, 

Very truly yours, 

Geo. b. Cortei/You, 

Secretary to the President. 
Mr. Frank Sewai^l, 

Chairman^ etc., 

York Village, Maine. 

After the Commemorative Hymn followed remarks of the 
President introducing Hon. John C. Stewart: 

^'Sons and Daughters of York, Honored Guests : 

"Those of you who went forth in the morning and have 
returned in the evening of your days to pay this mark of 
respect to the Old Home, I greet you and bid you welcome. 
"For two hundred and fifty years York has been the syno- 
nym of unstinted hospitality. It is my privilege to present 
to you one of her most respected citizens, who will extend to 
you her old-time cordial welcome. 

"I have the pleasure of introducing to you Hon. John C. 
Stewart." 

98 




Hon. John C. Stkwart, 
York. 



OF THB TOWN OP YORK, MAINS. 



Citizens' Welcome;, by Hon. John C. Stewart. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

To extend to you the welcome of the citizens of York is 
especially pleasing because of the presence of so many of 
our non-citizen residents, whom we, as a body of citizens, for 
the first time meet in a common assemblage. For many 
years you have been coming and going, seeing and meeting 
us as we have seen and met you without becoming really 
acquainted with each other. You will, I know, pardon me 
if I take some of my time in telling you who we are and 
what we think of you. 

Consulting your maps you will find midway between 
Altruria on the south and Carnegia on the north a small 
country bearing a strange and almost unpronounceable name, 
the ancient appellation of the territory which we recognize as 
"Old York." Formerly it was inhabited by a race of people 
honest, hardy, peaceable, home-loving. Jealous of their own 
rights they were careful not to infringe those of their neigh- 
bors. Some cultivated the soil, while others roamed the 
sea. Their flocks and herds delighted some, while others 
boasted of their rule over the ocean and idolized their trim 
and stately vessels. "Mild-eyed" oxen were their beasts of 
burden and furnished their motive power. They had little 
money and very little use for what they had. Their necessi- 
ties were few and were readily supplied by their farms and 
the sea. Their lands descended from father to son and were 
very rarely alienated. Did ambition seize one of our sons 
and drag him from his ancestral home he was mourned as 
are all prodigals, and, if he returned, was received with the 
welcome of his class. Sometimes we heard of his success in 

99 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

the great world beyond, but still we mourned his absence 
and only mentioned him as a warning to others. 

One summer, many, many years ago, an adventurer from 
your world came among us. We received him kindly, never 
dreaming of the result. The next year he returned and 
brought one or two of you with him. You were so well 
pleased that you brought some of your friends the next year. 
They, in turn, had friends who desired to see our pleasant 
country. They came and we began to realize that the "ruth- 
less invader" had taken possession of our territory. You 
roamed our pastures at will without asking our consent and 
sometimes forgot to put up the bars, or close the gate after 
you passed through. Occasionally a stone wall fell as you 
climbed it and you did not know how to rebuild it. Our 
cattle and sheep seemed to catch your restless spirit and 
began to wander from their confines. We preferred our 
mutton and beef on the hoof but were compelled to put it on 
the table. Then you wanted to build summer homes for 
yourselves. You wanted to purchase our ancestral acres. 
You tempted us with money. The first Charles had granted 
the original patent to our ancestor and we cherished that doc- 
ument almost as much as we did our land. Part with our 
heritage ? Never ! We locked our doors and pulled down 
our curtains that we might not even see you pass ! Still you 
persisted. You wearied us by your constant importunings 
and in a moment of weakness we yielded. We took your 
money ; you got our land ! When we realized what we had 
done remorse seized us. Our ancestors had toiled for ages to 
make these acres what they were and we had sold them for 
your money ! Apparently you felt no remorse or regrets. 
You built tasty and, to our minds, luxurious residences. 



OP THE TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



Then you wanted more land ! We declined to sell it. You 
added more money to the already tempting pile. We took 
it ! You built other houses. Then you demanded roads. 
We refused to build them. You appealed to the courts and 
forced us to yield. The old stage coach running to Ports- 
mouth, N. H., three times a week began to make daily trips. 
Its advent no longer called all the inhabitants of the village 
together. Still you were not satisfied. You must have a 
railroad. That brought more of you and you demanded the 
trolley. Here we drew the line. No devilish "broom-stick 
train" should destroy our quiet abode. It is here. 

And today, for the citizens of York, I extend to you our 
most cordial and hearty welcome. You have improved our 
homes, built our schoolhouses, repaired our churches, given 
us roads equal to any in the country towns of our state, 
brought the markets of the world to our doors, established 
libraries for our use, and seem constantly to be planning for 
our welfare. We appreciate all these things. Whatever of 
prejudice there may have been in the past is gone. You 
have been our friends. We are yours. 

And now to the worthy sons of a proud ancestry who have 
gone out into other parts, and who come home today to 
participate in these festivities, we say "Welcome." The 
blood of the Moulton, the Bradbury, the Say ward, the 
Norton, the Brackett, the Raines, the Sewall and scores of 
equally deserving ancestors has made itself felt in every state 
and territory in the Union. We welcome you today to the 
home of your ancestors. 

To the strangers who are with us we give a most hearty 
welcome. You come from all walks of life to aid us in cele- 
brating this day. We appreciate your presence. And while 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

we make it a festal day I would recall the early struggles of 
our ancestors in conquering the wilderness with its savage 
inhabitants, their patriotism for their sovereign, the king of 
Great Britain ; their love of freedom which led them to draft 
in yonder church the first Declaration of Independence ever 
written in America and send it by special messenger to the 
"Selectmen of the town of Boston" with the message that 
should their town decide to throw off its allegiance to King 
George they would aid them "with their fortunes and their 
lives"; the great struggle for liberty which followed a few 
years later and made this day possible. 

Introductory Address by the President 
OF THE Day. 

The citizen, the perennial visitor, the stranger within our 
gates, are all gathered here, fittingly to celebrate with us the 
birthday of dear old York. I am glad we are here today, 
and that we have the privilege of uniting heart and hand and 
voice in this grand demonstration of love and affection for 
this spot, so sacred to many of us with tender memories. 

Even yonder churchyard pays silent tribute to this theme, 
and to those who at their country's call passed on. 

If Old York has one distinction more than another, it is 
that she stands alone in her historic associations. We are 
most happy in having as our guests today a large delegation 
of the Maine Historical Society. Their honored President 
also represents in the same capacity the New England 
Genealogical Society : there is no man in the state better 
qualified to tell us who and what we are. 

I have the honor, and the very great pleasure, of intro- 



OF THE TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



ducing to you as orator of the day, Honorable James P. 
Baxter of Portland. 

Here followed the oration, by the Hon. James Phinney 
Baxter, president of the Maine Historical Society and of the 
New England Genealogical and Historical Society. 

Led by the band, the assembly now sang "The Star 
Spangled Banner." 

President's Remarks Continued. 

We have upon the platform men representative of the 
bench and the bar, the peers of any in the world ; others 
renowned in literature and the arts ; we have those who, by 
their magic pen, have expressed in poetry and prose their 
thoughts so eloquently that they have turned our hearts to 
laughter as they have moved our eyes to tears. The educa- 
tors of our youth are here, as are the merchant, the farmer, 
the mechanic. The humorist whom all Americans delight to 
honor ; the soldier who has carried our flag to victory, who 
when called upon responded with the best that was in him. 

The hardest task of your chairman has now befallen him, 
in that he has given his word that some of these will not be 
called upon to serve at the feast to which you have been 
invited ; nevertheless, they are here to honor Old York, and 
for this we love them. 

We will first have a word from that veteran Christian 
soldier and patriot who has four times been elected Governor 
of Maine, and while he needs no introduction to an Old York 
audience, I am proud to present to you, General Joshua L. 
Chamberlain. 



103 



Two HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



Remarks of General Chamberlain at the York 
Celebration. 

Mr. President^ and Gracious Friends : 

I am not one of your appointed speakers ; I am one of 
your relics. I had the honor some time ago of giving the 
"sermon" at the re-dedication of your historic old church 
here : and I dare say your Committee of Arrangements 
thought that was enough of my preaching for one generation. 
But now, called up by your courtesy to speak, even amidst 
these great men whose words are eagerly heard far and wide 
over the land and beyond the seas, some ancient blood in me 
gives the boldness to offer what I may among the testimonies 
of the day. 

Carlyle has said, in that epigrammatic style by which one 
aspedl of truth is put for the truth itself, "The hands of for- 
gotten brave men have made it a world for us." In one way, 
this is true ; and it bears no blame to us. We cannot store 
in our treasuries of remembrance all the good deeds, nor 
write on enduring tablets or even hold in mind at once, the 
names of all those who have done brave work for man. It 
would be like trying to keep a list of all the great-grand- 
fathers we have had. A century or two of that reckoning 
would break down our understanding. 

But this truism is not perfedl truth. We do not forget the 
service, nor the men and women, that have had part in mak- 
ing our life and lot. We cannot keep a list of all their 
names ; but only of those whom circumstances, favorable or 
adverse, have made conspicuous, — not necessarily for that, 
the most deserving. But the story of their deeds we cherish, 
and the transmitted power of their spirits we feel, as part of 

104 




Major Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, 
Brunswick, Maine. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



the great life to which we belong. The impressive ceremonial 
of this day, — this assemblage of strength and beauty all 
attuned to one high harmony of honoring remembrance, 
shows the great laws on a mightier side. Today you both 
accept and discriminate the truth in that epigram of the for- 
gotten. Indeed, to have uttered it is to remember the for- 
gotten. And today you prove that you remember those men 
and women gone from sight, even those without a recorded 
name, the relics of whose brave work remain in pi<5lur- 
esque and venerated form, and whose well-doing still lives, 
absorbed into our lives. 

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of human life that it is a contin- 
uity. A specific difference this, from other earthly lives. 
With us, too, all things change and pass ; but their effe(5ls 
are transmitted and multiply, even though often transmuted 
into unrecognizable identities. None of us lives to self, nor 
wholly dies. Man's work is largely of inheritance. It is 
something more than evolution ; it is by a spiritual seledlion 
that is different from natural seledlion. "Survival of the 
fittest," indeed; but what or who shall be called the fittest? 
Not, surely, the strongest of body only, nor chiefly ; but the 
spiritually strongest. And who shall analyze this, in its 
powers and offices ? 

We are interested in the things of ancient use. Their 
quaintness of form and simplicity of arrangement please us, — 
if they sometimes amuse us. We are glad somebody has 
dug up the stumps and got the stones out of the fields, and 
smoothed the way to our ease and comfort. But such things 
as these are not what we most truly respedl. It is the spirit 
that bravely faced these difficulties, — the courage and forti- 
tude which overcame the obstacles of nature and the assaults 

105 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

of enemies, savage or civilized. We look even with rever- 
ence at that life which prepared the way for ours. I do not 
say, for better things ; for we are not sure that life is better 
now, looking at its essential truth and chara<5ler, its manhood 
and womanhood. It is the strong charadlers which we honor, 
and are proud to claim as our predecessors. What if they 
are not, in a mere physical way, our ancestors ? We are the 
inheritors of those whose powers and virtues we honor and 
love. They are in truth our progenitors, — those whose spirit 
has been received into our own. Through liking we take on 
likeness. 

Those whose names we honor today, and the many whose 
names have been transcribed to unseen rolls, we recognize in 
the continuity of life, the inheritance of example, the persist- 
ence of vitalizing ideas and principles, as our fore-bearers, — 
if not what the Scotch call "forebears," 

The persons who came here in the early times were strenu- 
ous characters . They were robust in body, mind, and will. 
They were independent, individualistic ; — making all the 
stronger substance when their differences are interfused, har- 
monized, polarized, — like chemical combinations, the result 
better perhaps for use than either of the simple elements by 
itself. The court records of this old county show some 
original notions of individual rights ; some peculiar adjust- 
ments of the moral code adapted to unprecedented circum- 
stances and untrammeled ideas of liberty. The courts appear 
to have had quite a conventional code. The kinds of crimes 
and misdemeanors were curious; — "Theeing and thouing 
of people." — "speaking discornfully of the Massachusetts 
Court": — "refusing to pay assessments for the support of 



zo6 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



Harvard College," and things like that, — miniatures of the 
the minor Mosaic laws ! 

You citizens bear in mind that I absolved you from being 
all necessarily blood-relatives of these worthies of the court 
records ; indeed, the chara<5ler of some of the disorders implies 
that Cumberland was in the old time part of York. We 
don't know all our relatives. But anyway the people who 
have lived here have marked charadlers of strength. If there 
is anything conducive to this in environment, surely it must 
be abundant here, in a region so rich of earth and strong of 
sea, so healthful of atmosphere, so beautiful of aspedl, — so 
favorable for life in its various experiences and demonstra- 
tions, as this old battle ground and garden of the heroic 
times. 

We recognize with admiring respedt these representative 
citizens here who bear the same names or heart's blood as 
those who so long ago repudiated the mastery of anybody 
or anything earthly over them. But others, too, who came 
in later, and we who are deemed worthy to come in today to 
share this service of honor, — we desire to offer our tribute of 
remembrance for the strong and brave who here took the 
initiative in making this a world for us ; for we, too, claim to 
have part in this inheritance of brave beginnings. 

The President : 

"Will you now permit me to introduce one who holds a 
very large and very warm place in the hearts of boys, old and 
young, not only of Maine, but of all the States of America, 
President Tucker, of Grand Old Dartmouth." 



107 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



President Tucker's Address. 

President Tucker's address was as follows : 

It is well for those of us who are guests of this ancient 
town to be reminded that something more than nature is 
included in its hospitality. Personally I am indebted for the 
introdudlion we are having today of this bit of local human 
life which has unmistakable quality and distindlion about it. 
I am indebted for the change in the type of men which it 
gives us — a change from the type with which we are growing 
familiar to the point of weariness. 

There are fashions in men as in everything else. We 
become as conventional in our estimates of our kind as in our 
estimates of things. Wendell Phillips used to say, you 
remember, that he made his ledlure on the "I^ost Arts" to 
take the conceit out of Yankees. The modern man who 
exploits nature, who does his work at a second remove from 
her with the thousand appliances which he puts into his 
hands, had his peer in the man who, long before his arrival, 
wrought his work at first hand with nature, sometimes with 
her, sometimes against her. 

The scantier his equipment, the heavier the draft which he 
had to make upon himself, upon his courage, his patience, 
his invention, his faith. This habit of drawing on himself 
may have made him unsocial, and to our way of thinking 
sometimes unlovely, but he had the fibre out of which the 
web of civilization is woven. As some one has said about the 
Puritan, "We may laugh at him when he isn't round, but if 
we happen to stumble on him we instindtively take off our 
hats." 

And on the other hand the claim of this old historic life is 

io8 




Rev. William J. Tucker, D. D. 
President of Dartmouth College. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



that it had a background. Modem life has no perspedlive. 
It is all foreground. Everything is in plain sight. And 
in the absence of mystery we try to satisfy ourselves with 
bulk — with numbers, that is, and amounts ; we live in the 
atmosphere of mathematics and mechanics. But in those 
days behind every new corner on their shores there was 
the mighty spirit of adventure or the mightier principles 
of political and religious freedom. Every settlement had 
its cause and reason in the great movements which were 
taking place over the seas. This little settlement of York 
was a pawn on the chessboard of old world politics. The 
game was played by wireless telegraphy. A word from the 
court at Versailles, and the Indians stole down from the 
north on this errand of death. It was one continual move 
and countermove between English and French, and it was 
the settler who marked the play in the fate of his wife and 
children. In fact, as our historians have found, the best 
place to study the old world politics of that time is here, not 
there. Quebec with its story of incessant intrigue or of open 
fight is the veriest bit of old world life on either continent. 

I will add a word of more personal indebtedness to this 
occasion. One of the interesting things in my work is the 
constant mingling, as one sees it, of the currents of life from 
the old stock and the new in the process of the higher educa- 
tion. As might be expedled the new is on the whole gaining 
upon the old. The physical vitality of the new peoples, and 
their willing sacrifice for social gains is telling in education. 
Indeed the result is at times so marked that I have been 
compelled to say that it is easier in the educational world to 
make blue blood out of red blood, than to make red blood out 
of blue blood. It is reassuring, therefore, to come into one of 

109 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

the homes of the old stock, and to find that family life teems 
on strong and uninterrupted in its flow. I recognize the 
names of men from this town in my own college — there are 
doubtless others elsewhere — who have in them the blood of 
the men of the old time, whose deeds have brought us here 
today. It is reassuring, I say, to get away for a little from 
the ubiquitous self-made man among us into the presence of 
men whom the L,ord is making according to the old formula 
— from generation to generation. 

I acknowledge, Mr. President, from my point of observa- 
tion the comforting and reassuring influence of this day's 
proceedings, and I express once more my indebtedness for 
the uncovering of the human side of this old town, which in 
its quality and tone matches so well its setting in sea and sky. 

The President : 

"We have the unexpedled pleasure and the honor of the 
presence of one whom Maine has lost that the Empire State 
might gain, and one whom the whole country delights to 
honor, the Statesman, Hon. Thomas Brackett Reed, whom 
I beg to introduce." 

Mr. Reed's Remarks in Brief. 

Mr. Reed said that by looking upon the programme, and 
finding his name not enrolled there, one might consider his 
presence an intrusion were it not for the fadl that his ances- 
tors came from York, although so far as he could learn they 
never occupied any high position of trust. In fa(5t he had 
hard work to discover that they ever existed ; and certainly 
they held no position of great emolument, judging from his 
financial condition when he arrived. He did not wish to, 

no 




Hon. Thomas Bra khtt Rei:d, 
New York City. 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



but could not help thinking of this platform as a pulpit, for 
he was fain to draw a moral from the pidlure presented before 
him. He thought that with the high example set by their 
illustrious ancestors, the descendants of the settlers of York 
should so condudl themselves as to increase the nobility and 
civilization of the world in which they move. 

The President : 

"York has attra<n;ed to her borders those whom other less 
favored spots have failed to capture. We have made a most 
fortunate acquisition to our summer colony in the person and 
family of one of New York's most eminent counsellors. It 
gives me profound personal, as well as official pleasure, to 
introduce Francis Lynde Stetson, Esq., of New York." 

Mr. Stetson's Remarks. 

Since Gorges, nine generations have stood upon the earth, 
but now and here we think only of such of them as have 
found their homes in York. How does this community differ 
from many others? In degree only and not at all in kind. 
It is a fair type of the settlements on this New England 
coast, and shares their charadleristics. 

A gentle tidal stream, not too long or wide for familiar 
use, with a sun-set glory of its own, slowly seeks the eastern 
ocean, from which it is almost shut away by a tongue of land 
rising abruptly at the channel's mouth. A few slight inden- 
tations of the shore, with two projedling points and a nubble 
and a cape. Some rocky cliffs, not over high or rugged, and 
three softly sloping beaches. Islands far out at sea to the 
south and east, with lights at night, and one low mountain 
inland at the northwest. 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



By these physical features you have long been identified, 
but only within the last quarter century have they allured 
from distant homes and former fields of pleasure the many 
strangers whose joy it is here to find their chosen rest and 
recreation. Clearly, then, upon this quarter millenial day 
you have gathered, not to dwell upon the charm of stream and 
shore and sea, but rather to commemorate the community 
which upon this rock bound coast for more than two hun- 
dred years has sustained life and faced death with cheerful 
fortitude. One leader you have had worthy to give dis- 
tin<5lion to the town which he honored for almost a century. 
David Sewall, like him from whom he took his name, was a 
man after God's own heart, and his people's prophet. It is, 
however, not any leader, but the people themselves to whose 
memory this day is piously devoted ; not the great achieve- 
ments of the few, but the common duties bravely endured 
and faithfully fulfilled by the many as part of the common 
lot. The short and simple annals of these plain lives may 
not each be told, but together they have made a commu- 
nity, which in all essentials has shown little change from 
year to year, and but slight variation from other towns upon 
this coast. 

In these New England communities life has been so 
homogeneous as to seem to Matthew Arnold uninteresting, 
and to many monotonous. But that single tone ever has 
found its key in conscience, and has sought for harmony with 
the revealed will of God. From communities thus attuned to 
duty has come the calm resolution that captured the Philip- 
pines, and the passion for justice and liberty that will make it 
impossible to keep them captive. 

Out of the present, as well as from the past, in the ful- 

112 




Francis Lynde Stetson, Esq., 
New York City. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



ness of time will develop the millennium of right that shall be 
the heritage alike of York, and of our beloved Union, which 
after all is only an aggregation of Yorks. The dawning of 
that millennium, though gradual as daybreak, is the confident 
belief of all Americans, except the very few whose instindl is 
despair. With them we will commiserate, but we will not 
sympathize. Not despondency but hope is justified by the 
record of our past progress, and by our present conditions. 
At your next great feast of commemoration the sons and 
daughters of York surely shall declare that here, and in New 
England, life is not only true, but that it is also interesting; 
and that your people are as generous as just." 

The President : 

"What can I say that you do not already know of the 
author, the poet, the citizen, the genial friend, the man and 
all that it implies and for which it stands. The possessor of 
these attributes, our honored friend, will speak to you, Mr. 
Thomas Nelson Page." 

Thomas Nelson Page's Address. 

The thoughts called up by such a celebration as this are 
curiously diverse. The outside is all joy ; jollity ; merry- 
making ; pride in achievement ; content with the present ; 
hope and assurance for the future. And it may well be so. 
We are gathered here today to celebrate the two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Town of York 
— to celebrate more than this — for other places had a little 
the start of us. Roanoke Island, Jamestown, Henrico, 
Hampton, Plymouth, Salem, Kittery, Ipswich, and other 
places claim to have been settled before us. But so were 

113 



TWO HUNDRIiD AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Messapotamia and Greenland. In colonization as in logic 
and in war, the thing is not merely to assume a position but 
to maintain it. Roanoke was destroyed by the Croatan 
Indians ; Jamestown yielded to the deadly fever of the 
autumnal marshes ; Plymouth was swallowed up by Mass- 
achusetts. And so passed one and another. But York's 
pre-eminence is based on her having survived all the chances 
and changes of the two centuries and a half that have rolled 
by since her people planted themselves on the fair slopes that 
stretched beside the Agamenticus and like their great elms 
struck their roots so deep and lastingly into the soil that they 
have never since been eradicated. 

It is this that we have assembled to celebrate. You, the 
native-born people of York ; you, the descendants of the 
settlers of York, and the rest of us who have come from other 
Yorks ; but all with the blood and brawn and principles that 
made and have kept this York continuously for 250 years. 
The pride that we express today is in the fadl that this town 
which the fathers and grandfathers of you citizens of York 
for six, seven, eight generations settled and kept settled 
against all the forces of Nature and of Time, is, perhaps, the 
oldest continuous chartered settlement of the Anglo-Saxon 
race on this continent. Exposed to rovers of the sea on one 
side ; to the fierce savages of the forest on the other, your 
ancestors yet held their own with a grim resolution that 
should be your personal pride as it is the national pride of us 
who come from other secflions of the country, and claim 
kindred with you — that kindred which children of one blood 
have who have played together, fought together, loved 
together, suffered together and hoped together. The rigors 
of winter, the niggard soil only inspired to greater effort and 

114 




Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, 
Washington, D. C. 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



gave them a sterner resolution and a stouter fibre. Here was 
their home and here they lived from generation to generation 
preserving the courage, the independence, the virtue, and the 
civilization of the forefathers. 

With the home and the town-hall, they were ready to meet 
all problems of government ; with the meeting-house and the 
jail they could defy the devil and control his children. 

They lived in a stern age and they met sternness with 
sternness, iron with iron. They feared God, but they feared 
no man, and history says the governors had rather a stormy 
time with them. If the governors were trying to get any- 
thing out of them which was not their due, history very 
likely tells the truth. They knew their rights, and knowing, 
dared maintain. They did not live so much off to themselves 
that they did not keep pace with public affairs, and when the 
trouble came between the colonies and the mother country 
they took their part and sent a deputation to Boston to 
pledge their arms and their fortunes to the common cause. 
Nor was their offer an idle boast, for we are told that within 
twenty-four hours of the news of I^exington a company 
marched for Boston. 

You may well be proud of their achievement, you who are 
descended from them. Coming as I do from an old house on 
the banks of another York River in another colony planted 
by the same people, I feel the thrill of pride in them as an 
integral part yet kindred with my own people ; of that great 
race which established trial by jury ; and the Writ of Habeas 
Corpus ; who claimed the principle that government is based 
on the consent of the governed, proved the right of local self- 
government, and substituted for military tyranny representa- 
tive government. 

115 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Your country has opened up as your fathers never dreamed 
of its being opened. You are within two hours of Boston, 
within seven hours of New York and within two days of New 
Orleans. Your climate which was once esteemed your great- 
est handicap has proved a golden dower ; and people come 
from distant states to partake of its benefits, paying you a 
richer tribute than ever Rome levied on her barbarian tribu- 
taries. 

I was sincerely pleased to be asked to speak here today, 
much more pleased doubtless than some of my hearers ; but 
I cannot help that. My pleasure, apart from that natural 
pleasure that a man has in hearing himself talk, is based on 
the fact that it shows my interest in York — my virtue as a 
citizen of York, was understood. I did not know before that 
it was quite appreciated. 

You may remember the story of the negro soldier who 
spent the day on top of San Juan Hill with a pick. "Umph!" 
he said as he drove his pick home, digging a trench, "I 
never did spec' de day to come when I'd love a pick." I 
never expecfted the day to come when I'd feel the deep 
affedtion that warms my heart for these Yankees up here. 

Has it ever struck you how strong is the resemblance ; 
how universal are their charadleristics ; how much alike they 
are ? There are differences it is true ; but they are mainly 
the difference between city breeding and country breeding — 
the racial charadteristics are the same. All the rest is 
personal, a mere veneer. 

The reason is that these people are all of the same race ; 
all have the same history ; all have the same traditions ; all 
have the same virtues and the same failings ; worship the 
same God ; take pride in the same past ; look forward with 

ii6 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



hope to the same future and cherish the same aspirations for 
this world and the next. 

But elsewhere in our country are large numbers of people 
of other races and with other traditions ; people who have 
not the past that we have, but who, bred under tyranny, 
have suddenly found themselves in a liberty which they 
know not how to appreciate or to preserve. They have 
become a part of our body politic, but are alien as yet to its 
principles. They must either be absorbed into it or must be 
held aloof from it. 

As our fathers had their problems to solve, their enemies 
to fight and conquer, their principles to establish and pre- 
serve., so have we ours. 

It is said that Republican Government is on trial with us. 
If we fail, it is done, forever. 

If history teaches any lesson it teaches that liberty, so slow 
a growth that it takes centuries to come into being ; yet is so 
delicate a growth that it may be cut down almost in a night. 
We know that Eternal Vigilance is its price. It may exist 
in its externals even under a tyranny not less real than that 
of Rome, or Venice, or Mexico; but it can survive only 
with a people who love it above wealth or power or fame or 
life itself. None of us would be greatly surprised to find 
tyranny in the form of monarchy re-asserting itself in France. 
Many of us would be hardly surprised to find it reasserting 
itself in some of our sister Republics of South America, 
though it should keep its Republican name and form. But 
all of us would be amazed to awake and find it existing in 
our own land. This is ultimately because of the charadler 
of our people. We have come to consider liberty as much a 
part of our being as the air we breathe. Yet when we 

117 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

refledl, it is only a little more than a hundred years since we 
were under the dominion of a King who would as gladly 
have reduced us to the condition of the Muscovites as Peter 
or Paul of Russia, and it is only two hundred years since we 
were the subjedls of a King who sacrificed his kingdom to 
his idea of privilege. 

It rests with you to preserve what your forefathers secured 
and handed down to you. It is on the sterling independence 
of our American people ; on their love of liberty ; their 
homely virtues that the hope of liberty and of virtue in the 
world rests. 

Wealth piles up in the central marts. The power of organ- 
ization is so tremendous that it brings about vast aggrega- 
tions of capital, till it is said that the inequality is such that 
one-third of one per cent, of the population own seventy per 
cent, of the entire property of the country in value; that is, 
assuming that three hundred men own $ioo, one of these 
owns $70, and the other two hundred and ninety-nine own 
together the other $30. This would matter little if with the 
wealth did not go hand in hand corruption — not mere per- 
sonal corruption, for the corruption of one man counts for 
little, but corruption by organization, corruption of the 
fountain heads of legislation of justice. 

With you rests the remedy — with you and your like the 
home-staying, sturdy, independent American people. 

The President : 

"It remains for one who has recently come to us in the flesh 

to round up this feast and to make smooth the rough places. 

"If there is a human being in the civilized world, old 

enough to think, who has not heard of Mark Twain, I am 

118 




Mr. vSamuel L. CIvKmkns [Mark Twain], 
New York. 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



sorry for him, I desire publicly to welcome to York one 
who can tell us something of this distinguished writer and 
speaker, and at the same time to thank him for his kind 
co-operation and presence. I beg to introduce Mr. Samuel 
L. Clemens." 

Remarks by Mr. Samuel I/. Clemens. 

Mr. Clemens began in a markedly chara(5leristic vein to 
say that he had come to York to instrudl it in its ancient 
history, to recftify the morals of its inhabitants and to other- 
wise do valuable things in the way of didadlics. He found 
himself prevented from so doing by the example of another, 
and noted with surprise that Thomas B. Reed should mis- 
take a desk for a pulpit, especially as the speaker was one 
who, in time gone by, had amazed the nations of the world, 
the human race, and, added Mr. Clemens, "even myself!" 

He said a letter signed "One of the Vidtims" had just 
been handed him from the audience and contained several 
compliments, things which he never overlooked ; and would 
the writer please rise? The letter stated that there had 
never been any but the best weather until he had come to 
York, and seemed to place the blame entirely on him, 
demanding that he either apologize or go away. The first, 
he might do, but the alternative he would meet with a flat 
refusal. In thirty-seven days he had had no fault to find 
with the weather as he had stayed stridlly at home, and the 
rain seemed to come only when it thought it could catch one 
out. For thirty-four of the thirty-seven days he had worked 
and that was something he never before had been able to do. 
The climate, he thought, prevented moral deterioration, for 
he had worked four Sundays without breaking the Sabbath. 

119 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

The author then said he was a little deaf, but not so much 
so as to miss the many compliments which had preceded, and 
not so blind as not to see that they all referred to him. 
When Ex-Gov. Chamberlain referred to "the intelledlually 
brilliant," the speaker had noticed that he had looked 
straight at him. To some this would be embarrassing, but 
where deserved it was not so at all. 

One of the most serious questions with which he had to 
contend in York was matches. If he wished to smoke it 
was next to impossible to get a light. He could buy only a 
sort of match with a pidlure of the inventor on each box and 
labelled "Safety." He felt free to say that they are so safe 
one cannot light them. Even Satan, the inventor and a dis- 
tant relative of his, can't use them for he has no appliances 
to make them go, and is utilizing them to build cold storage 
vaults for such choice morsels as Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, 
Alexander VI ; and, added the speaker, "he has a wistful eye 
on some other notables not yet started, and here present." 

Another serious question for Mr. Clemens was the confu- 
sion of post offices in this town — York Cliffs, York Beach, 
York Harbor, York Village, York Corner, and so on. In 
fact, one cannot throw a brickbat across a thirty-seven acre 
lot without danger of disabling a postmaster; they are as 
thick as aldermen in the days of the old city charter. 

If he stayed here he expe(5led to attend York's tri-centen- 
nial in fifty years, for already he had grown younger by many 
years than he was on his arrival. 

After the singing of America by the entire assembly stand- 
ing, the Reverend Sidney K, Perkins, pastor of the First 
Parish Church, pronounced the benedidlion. 




Stairway, Coventry Hall. 



OF THE TOWN OK YORK, MAINE. 



IReception* 



At the reception given at the close of the public exercises 
to the visiting members of the Maine Historical Society at 
Coventry Hall, the old "Judge Sewall Mansion," there were 
present, among others, Mr. James P. Baxter, Mr. Percy P. 
Baxter, Miss Emily Baxter, Miss Madeline Baxter, Mr. and 
Mrs. H. W. Bryant, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. H. S. Burrage, Mr. 
and Mrs. Samuel Buffum of North Berwick, Mr. Edward A. 
Butler of Rockland, Gen. J. L. Chamberlain, Mr. Henry 
Deering, Mr. Nathan Goold, Mr. Isaac M. Emery of Ken- 
nebunkport, Mrs. Harmon, Miss J. Crie, Miss Helen M. 
Howarth, Miss Frances Howarth, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. 
Moulton, Mr. Augustus F. Moulton, Mr. A. R. Stubbs, Mr. 
and Mrs. A. L,. Talbot of Lewiston, Mr. Richmond of Buffalo, 
N. Y., Mr. Frederick S. Vaill, Mr. Joseph Wood, Dr. and 
Mrs. Stephen H. Weeks, Miss Weeks, Dr. and Mrs. J. L. M. 
Willis, the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Francis Lynde Stetson, 
Esq., and Mrs. Stetson, Mr. William Dean Howells, Miss 
'^arah Orne Jewett and Miss Jewett, Mr. Thomas Nelson 
Page and Mrs. Page, Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Smith, Mrs. 
Hungerford, Miss I^ouise Smith, Mr. Frank D. Marshall, 
the Hon. Edward O. Emerson and Mrs. Emerson, Miss Con- 
stance Emerson, Mr. and Mrs. George L. Cheney, Mrs. 
Thatcher Eoring, Mrs. James T. Davidson, Mrs. Newton 
Perkins, Mrs. Charles C. Barrell and the Misses Barrell, Mr. 
John E. Staples, Mr. and Mrs. John Burleigh, Mrs. Matilda 
Burleigh, Miss Ellen M. Dennett, Mr. Josiah Chase, Mrs. 
Emma Paul, Miss Florence Paul and Miss Gertrude Paul, 
Miss Maud Gelchrist Sewall, Miss Rachel Kenyon Sewall 
and Miss Elizabeth Trufant Sewall. 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



ZTbe Cburcbee anb flMntetere of tbe 
^own of ^ov\{. 



A Paper Read at the Commemorative Service in the Parish 
Church, on Sunday Evening, Aug. 3, 1902, by the 

Rev. SIDNEY K. PERKINS, Pastor. 

This sketch of the history of the churches and ministers of 
York as it relates to the First Church and its true child, the 
Second Church, in the Scotland or Upper Parish, is already 
familiar to many present, so that for such hearers there is 
nothing nevi^ to be said ; but for those who are strangers to 
our history there may be special interest in the "twice told 
tale." 

That the early history of the First Church and Parish of 
York was of unusual interest is indicated by the traditions 
that have come down to us from the days when York was the 
leading town in the "Province of Maine." The ecclesiastical 
history begins at a somewhat later date than the story of the 
town. But an old record says that "The people of this town 
were probably supplied with preaching from the earliest set- 
tlement of the place. It cannot be supposed that a people 
who had been always accustomed to religious privileges, and 
some of whom had left their native land for conscience's sake, 
would be long without the stated administration of the Word 
of God, and the ordinances of the gospel." 

It was probably the intention of Gorges and his associates 
to establish the Church of England here, for, in the words of 




Rkv. Sidney K. Perkins, 
Pastor of First Parish Church, York. 



OF THB TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



the charter given by the King, it was declared that **Our will 
and pleasure is that the religion now professed in the Church 
of England and ecclesiastical government now used in the 
same, shall be ever hereafter professed, and with as much 
convenient speed as may be, settled and established in and 
throughout the province." But no Episcopal church appears 
to have been established in York, although some of its clergy 
are mentioned as having officiated here. The first minister 
known to have been resident here was Rev. Shubael Dum- 
mer, an ancestor of one now on this platform (Rev. Frank 
Sewall, D. D.). Mr. Dummer was a native of Newbury, 
Mass., and a graduate of Harvard. 

He was ordained to the ministry in this town. He per- 
formed the unusual service of preaching his own ordination 
sermon from the text, Psalm 80: 14: "Return, O I^ord, and 
visit this vine." It is naturally inferred that, according to 
the general custom, the organization of the church preceded 
the ordination of the pastor; so that this church, notwith- 
standing the loss of the early records, reasonably assumes its 
organization to have been not later than 1673, thus making it 
the oldest ecclesiastical organization in the State of Maine. 

Rev. Mr. Dummer is described as "a very serious, godly 
man," and he continued his service as minister to the people 
of York until that sad morning, January 25, 1692, when the 
settlement was surprised by hostile Indians, some fifty of the 
inhabitants killed, and one hundred carried into captivity, 
among the latter, the wife of Mr. Dummer. The minister 
himself was shot and killed just as he was mounting his horse 
near his house, which, tradition says, was near the "roaring 
rock." 

After the tragic death of the first minister, for a period of 

123 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

five years there was "little or no preaching in York." The 
people were disheartened, and reduced in numbers and 
resources in consequence of the Indian invasion. 

In writing of this period, Rev. Rufus M. Sawyer, a former 
pastor of this church, says that "The restraints of religion 
were very much removed, and levity and wickedness rapidly 
spread. 

"A few, indeed, refined in the furnace of afflidlion, walked 
near God ; while the majority, forgetting the faithful instruc- 
tions of their deceased pastor, treated religion lightly, and 
lived as though they were made for no higher purpose than 
to eat, drink, and be merry." 

It was at this time that a young man appeared on the 
scene, who was destined to spend a long life in York, and to 
wield an influence never to be forgotten. 

This young man was Samuel Moody, also a native of 
Newbury, Mass., like Mr. Dummer, his predecessor; and 
like him also, a graduate of Harvard College. 

Samuel Moody was only twenty-three years old when he 
came to preach as a candidate to the people of York in May, 
1698 — and it was two years later before he was ordained as 
pastor. Young Moody came here in a true missionary spirit, 
recognizing the poverty of his new parish. He settled with- 
out a stipulated salary, disposed to live a life of faith in God, 
and in his parishoners. Yet he did think it worth his while 
to appeal to the legislature of Massachusetts for assistance. 
This appeal was granted to the extent of twelve pound ster- 
ling, or sixty dollars of our money. 

A rare combination of courage, faith, and love is implied 
in the willingness of this young minister, and his bride, 
Hannah Sewall, of Newbury, only daughter of John Sewall, 

124 



OP THB TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



to settle in this frontier parish which from that time onward 
for nearly fifty years was never so free from peril of Indian 
attack that men dared to leave their arms behind them when 
they went to church. 

The meeting-house first used stood below the dwelling of 
William L,unt and this side the residence of W. T. Keen. 

lyater, the second house was eredled, and was the original 
building from which the house in which we are now assem- 
bled has been successively remodelled. 

It was eredted during the lifetime of Father Moody. A 
rare combination of qualities belonged to Samuel Moody, 
making him loved, respecfted and even feared by his people. 
Samuel Moody was distinguished for his unselfishness; his 
own interests seem to have been among the last things he 
ever considered. 

Willing to live without a stipulated salary, he was equally 
willing to give away what he received to anybody whose 
need seemed greater. Many stories are told illustrating this 
feature of his chara(5ter. His good wife seems to have appre- 
ciated her husband's virtues, or perhaps as she may have 
sometimes thought to herself, his failings, for it is said that 
on one occasion she took pains, when Mr. Moody was about 
leaving home for a journey, to tie his his purse securely in 
his handkerchief, tying several hard knots, so that the good 
man might have time to think while untying them. But the 
outcome was disappointing to Mrs. Moody, for finding the 
knots hard, the husband lost his patience, and bestowed 
handkerchief, purse, and all upon a poor beggar, saying, 
"The lyord must have meant that you should have it all." 

On another occasion the good minister saw two geese flying 
overhead, and the larder being low, he told the Lord that if 

125 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

He would give him both geese he would give the best one to 
a poor neighbor. Both birds came down, one was fat, the 
other lean, but true to his word, in spite of his thrifty wife's 
remonstrance, he sent the fat goose straightway to his poor 
neighbor. 

At still another time, a cold frosty morning, a poor woman 
appeared at the door barefooted, and begged for shoes. Mr. 
Moody promptly gave her a pair belonging to his wife, which 
proved to be the only pair she had. When the good lady 
became aware of her loss, the husband sought to appease her 
wrath by saying that the lyord would send another pair before 
night. And as though to justify the simple faith of the good 
man, in the course of the forenoon a neighbor came in bring- 
ing a pair of shoes which he explained were too small for his 
wife, and perhaps they would be acceptable to Mrs. Moody, 
whose feet they fitted. These stories, and many like them, 
illustrate the freedom from worldly care which chara(5lerized 
this good man. 

The parishioners were not insensible to the self-denials of 
their pastor. They built him a house and hired a man to 
manage the farm. At one time it is said that a negro was 
purchased by the parish to do this work. But for only a 
brief period did the First Parish of York appear in the role 
of slaveholder. 

Father Moody appreciated the thoughtfulness of his parish- 
ioners but he steadily repelled any suggestions looking toward 
the payment of a regular salary. In one of his sermons he 
said that for twenty years he had been supported in a way 
most pleasing to him, and had been under no need of spend- 
ing one hour in the week in care for the world. 

When he became an old man, an article was inserted in a 

126 



OF THE TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



warrant for parish meeting "to see if the parish would settle 
a salary upon Mr. Moody." Whereupon he attended the 
meeting, and opposed the article when it was brought up. 

His friends told him that he was now an old man, and 
received only a poor support, and what little he did get came 
from his best friends, and that it operated very unequally in 
the parish. To all this Father Moody replied, "Who are my 
best friends?" And not waiting for an answer he named a 
number of persons, saying, "Are not these my best friends ?" 
It was assented to. "Well, are not these the best livers 
in town?" They were certainly well off, and he replied, 
"Yea, and they always will be so while they lay themselves 
out for the support of the gospel." 

It is a disappointment that no pidlure of Mr. Moody exists, 
and that there is not even a description of his personal 
appearance. In the current number of the New England 
magazine — in an article on York — there is a silhouette of 
Hannah Sewall, the first wife of Rev. Samuel Moody, but I 
have seen nothing of the kind relating to Mr. Moody. Yet 
we have such a clear portrait of the mental, moral, and spirit- 
ual qualities of Samuel Moody that we can well spare the 
physical likeness, and feel that we know the real man. 

That he was capable of preaching a strong discourse, like 
many another "Colonial parson," is evident from a printed 
sermon still extant. The subje(5t is suggestive, being, "The 
Doleful State of the Damned — Especially Such as go to Hell 
from Under the Gospel." 

Such sermons from Mr. Moody bear witness to his stern 
sense of duty. But this stern sense of duty was coupled, as 
we have seen, with the utmost human charity and love for 
his fellow men. 

127 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

He was in pradlical relations a bold and fearless preacher. 

At one time when a wealthy parishioner had held on to his 
large stock of corn in a time of great scarcity, in hopes of 
raising the price, Mr. Moody preached from these words : 
"He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, but 
blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it." 
While the pastor was preaching this sermon, the offending 
parishioner faced him with a look of stolid indifference. Mr. 
Moody grew warmer, as he went on with his discourse, until 
finally he lost all patience, and calling his parishioner by 

name he cried, "Colonel I , Colonel I , you know I 

mean you. Why don't you hang your head?" 

Another day the same parishioner's wife came sweeping 
into the church in a new hooped dress, then very fashionable, 
and Mr. Moody cried from the pulpit: "Here she comes — 
here she comes — gallant and top-gallant, rigged most beauti- 
fully, and sailing most majestically, but she has a leak, that 
will sink her to hell." Yet in the face of such diredl attack 
he was not asked to read his resignation. 

Ministers and people were very forbearing toward each 
other in those days. 

Father Moody's style of preaching, as evident from such 
anecdotes as those just mentioned, was very diredl and in 
marked contrast to the carefully written discourses of his 
son-in-law. Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Maiden, Mass., who, 
by the way, was the ancestor of the Emersons of York. The 
people of York had a great admiration for Mr. Emerson's 
sermons. This was known to Father Moody and he thought 
he would imitate Mr. Emerson's method. 

One trial was sufl&cient for Mr. Moody. Before he had 
proceeded far in reading his sermon he stopped, and looked 

128 



OF THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



around upon his hearers, and said: "Emerson must be 
Emerson and Moody must be Moody — I feel as if my head 
was in a bag. You call Moody a rambling preacher, and it 
is true enough, but he is just fit to catch up rambling sin- 
ners. You are all run away from the Lord." And then he 
proceeded in his accustomed way of preaching. 

But in spite of such eccentricities — and perhaps in part 
because of them and because of his rugged strength — Mr. 
Moody had a wide fame. He was always a welcome preacher 
in Boston. 

In Providence, also, he was instrumental in forming the 
First Congregational Church, and the people there wanted 
him to become their pastor, but York could not spare him. 
Father Moody was a friend of Whitefield and gladly wel- 
comed the great preacher when he came to York. Mr. 
Moody's gift in prayer was regarded as remarkable. 

It was believed that one of his prayers was instrumental in 
obtaining the destrudlion of the French fleet in 1746. 

Colonel Dummer Sewall, of Bath, but a native of York, 
said of this prayer: "Yes — I recolledl it — though I was quite 
young. I remember the consternation that was depidled on 
almost every countenance. But we had recourse to prayer. 
The Church in York appointed a day for the purpose. On 
that occasion Father Moody, in praying against the fleet, 
brought to view the expression made use of in the Scriptures 
with regard to Sennacherib, "Put a hook in his nose, and a 
bridle in his lips, turn him back again by the way that he 
came, that he shall not shoot an arrow here, nor cast up a 
bank, but by the way that he came, cause him to return." 
By and by the old gentleman waxed warm and raised his 
hands and voice and cried out — "Good Lord, if there is no 

129 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

other way of defeating their enterprise, send a storm upon 
them, and sink them in the deep." 

It was afterward discovered that not far from the time of 
this prayer a tremendous storm burst upon the enemy's fleet 
and occasioned its destruction . 

Father Moody was of heroic mould, and when seventy 
years old, only two years before his death, he went with the 
American army as chaplain in the Cape Breton expedition 
that resulted in the capture of lyouisburg from the French. 
After the capture of the place, Sir William Pepperrell gave a 
dinner, and Father Moody was invited to return thanks, 
although many were afraid that he would consume too much 
time in asking the blessing, so that the dinner would get 
cold, and the British officers invited become offended. 

But to the surprise and delight of all, Father Moody 
delivered himself of this brief and appropriate grace, "O 
Lord, we have so many things to thank thee for that time 
will be infinitely too short to do it ; we must therefore leave 
it for the work of eternity. Bless our food and fellowship on 
this joyful occasion, for Christ's sake. Amen." 

The old minister returned in health from this expedition, 
and resumed his labors with his people, but his work was 
nearly over, and two years later, in 1747, he fell asleep, 
while he rested in the arms of his son Joseph, the first minis- 
ter of the second or "Scotland" parish. 

I have given a great deal of time to the Rev. Samuel 
Moody, and I might easily have devoted all the time allowed 
me this evening to a sketch of him and his work, as there is 
more material concerning him than of any other man in the 
pastoral succession here. And the work accomplished by 
Father Moody deserves especial mention, because of its 

130 



OP THB TOWN OF YORK, MAINK. 



achievements, and because of his own wide fame. Samuel 
Moody came to a weakened and discouraged settlement and 
to a feeble church. When he died he left a prosperous com- 
munity and a church of over three hundred members, the 
largest then existing in Maine. 

He saw powerful rivivals during his ministry, and he wel- 
comed them. But he also recognized the fa<5l that religion is 
more than an emotion, and he earnestly sought to develop 
strong Christian charadlers among his people. His success 
was great if we are to measure it simply by the change which 
transformed what has been described as a largely irreligious 
community into one where it was rare to find a family where 
prayer was not observed. The appreciation in which Rev. 
Samuel Moody was held is summed up in the well-known 
epitaph on his tombstone as he sleeps in "God's Acre" 
across the way: "Here lies the body of the Rev. Samuel 
Moody, A. M. The zealous, faithful, and successful pastor 
of the First Church of Christ, in York. Was born in New- 
bury, January 4th, 1675. Graduated 1697. Came hither 
May i6th, 1698. Ordained in December, 1700, and died 
here November 13th, 1747. For his further charadler, read 
the 2d Corinthians, 3rd chapter and first six verses." Before 
turning from the story of Mr. Moody it should be said that 
he was the ancestor of many who are still resident in York 
bearing the Moody name, and of many of other names ; and 
also that he was the spiritual father of a much larger num- 
ber. 

The people of York seem to have been in no haste in 
securing the successor of Father Moody, for it was more than 
two years after his death when the Rev. Isaac layman was 
ordained as the third pastor of this church, Dec. 20, 1749. 

131 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

Mr. Lyman was a young man, a native of Northampton, 
Mass., where the name of lyyman still continues to be one 
of the most honored. Isaac Ivyman, unlike his two prede- 
cessors, was not a graduate of Harvard, but of Yale. His 
ministry here was a long and faithful one. For more than 
sixty years he was known as the pastor of this church, 
although during the last ten or twelve years of his life he 
had a colleague. He was evidently a man of very different 
type from his predecessor, Mr. Moody, but the record is 
that "Mr. layman ever sustained the character of a faith- 
ful minister of Christ." His labors were successful. It is 
recorded that in 1756 when he had been seven years pastor, 
the town was visited by a revival of religion. 

"The great earthquake in November, 1755, was a means of 
awakening the attention of a great number. As the fruits of 
this revival about forty persons united with the church." It 
is also a matter of record that at the close of Mr. layman's 
long ministry, "he had the satisfa<5lion of seeing his people 
united and profited by his labors." "They regarded him," 
it is said, "with the veneration of a beloved father," and 
when he had been gathered to his rest the Rev. Dr. Hemmen- 
way, of Wells, preached his funeral sermon and paid a high 
tribute to his character. Rev. Mr. layman was the father of 
nine children. 

An aged woman, still living in York, told me recently that 
she had a clear memory of Madame Lyman, who was living 
at an advanced age when this woman was a little school- 
girl. 

Although Lyman, as a family name, has disappeared from 
York, the reverend pastor has many descendants here who 
bear other names. 

132 



OP THE TOWN OF YORK, MAINE. 



President Kliot, of Harvard University, is a great-grand- 
son of Isaac L,yman. 

The house until recently occupied by Miss Almira Allen, 
was built for Mr. layman. 

The pastorate of Isaac L,yman was the longest ever known 
in York. Then followed the shorter pastorates ; first, of his 
colleague and successor. Rev. Roswell Messinger, for nearly 
fifteen years. Moses Dow, fourteen years. During Mr. 
Dow's pastorate there was a division which resulted in the 
formation of the M. K. Church. Rev. Eber Carpenter fol- 
lowed Mr. Dow, His was a strong character, and he gained 
such a hold on the regard of many of the parishioners in his 
pastorate, five and a half years, that several children were 
named for him. 

Mr. Carpenter married a layman, and his body lies in the 
Lyman lot in what is now known as the Grant farm. Rev. 
John Haven followed Mr. Carpenter with a pastorate of four 
years. His wife, dying here, was the first to be buried in 
what was then the "new" cemetery. 

Then came Rev. John L,. Ashby, and he remained here 
nearly eight years. Rev. William J. Newman succeeded 
Mr. Ashby, and died greatly beloved after a brief ministry 
of nine months. The Rev. John Smith, represented here 
tonight by his son, Mr. Walter M. Smith, and by two daugh- 
ters, was settled over this church 0(5lober 9, 1850, and dis- 
missed at his own request, on account of the ill health of 
Mrs. Smith, March 20th, 1855. This was Rev. Mr. Smith's 
last settled pastorate. He is said to have excelled as a pas- 
tor, and his departure was regretted. 

Rev. William A. Patten succeeded Mr. Smith with a three 
years' ministry. Mr. Patten's pastorate occurred at a stir- 

133 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

ring period, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Mr. 
Patten still abides in his native town of Kingston, N. H., in 
a vigorous and honored old age. Until quite recently it 
might have been said of him that "his eye was not dim, nor 
his natural force abated." 

After Mr. Patten came Rev. Rufus M. Sawyer, who is 
recorded as "stated supply" from Odtober ist, 1861, till mid- 
summer, 1866. The name of Mr. Sawyer is a precious mem- 
ory to many among us. His pastorate about covered the 
period of the Civil War, and there was no question of his 
patriotism. Neither was there any question of his devotion 
as a minister. A revival of religion, still remembered, some 
of whose fruits have been a blessing to the church ever since, 
distinguished his pastorate. 

Rev. John Parsons succeeded Mr. Sawyer in a brief pas- 
torate of two years and a half. On September 28th, 1870, 
Rev. Benjamin W. Pond was installed pastor, serving the 
church from May, 1870, until September, 1873. 

Rev. David B. Sewall followed Mr. Pond in a pastorate of 
fourteen and a half years. Mr. Sewall, in his honored and 
useful old age, is always a most welcome visitor in his former 
parish. 

The successors of Mr. Sewall in the pastorate have been 
the Rev. Geo. M. Woodwell and the Rev. Melvin J. Allen, 
prior to the coming of the present pastor. The pastorates of 
both Mr. Woodwell and Mr. Allen have been so recent that 
they need no words of mine to describe them to their friends 
and late parishioners. 

It was the early pra<5lice of the church to ordain elders, but 
I have seen no list of names. Many names have been 
honored among the clerks and deacons and other officers 

134 



OF THE TOWN OP YORK, MAINE. 



connedled with the church and parish. Comparisons among 
these names would be indeed invidious, and the fear of omit- 
ting some deservedly cherished restrains me from mention- 
ing any. It should be remembered that imperfedl or missing 
records prevent the making of the complete history or even 
sketch that we would like to give. 

The history of the First Church and Parish of York is one 
well worth a better treatment than I have been able to give 
to it in the brief time allowed for preparation. But the town 
of York has been a better and happier town because of the 
true and noble lives that have been nurtured under the 
influences in its First Church of Christ. It is fitting that I 
add a few words in regard to the Second or "Scotland" 
Church in the "Upper Parish." This parish was formed in 
1732, when the first minister. Rev. Joseph Moody, was 
ordained. I said at the beginning of this address that the 
Second Church was the true child of the First Church. The 
relationship was certainly very close, for the first member- 
ship was composed of those who had been parishioners of this 
church. 

The first pastor, too, was the gifted son of Father Moody. 
Bright, indeed, must have seemed the prospedls of the new 
church and the newly ordained pastor. None could foresee 
that after a period of about six years the brilliant mind of the 
minister would ever afterward be clouded, but so it came to 
pass that Rev. Joseph Moody came to be locally known as 
"Handkerchief Moody," and more widely as Hawthorne's 
"Veiled Parson." This man in spite of his mental infirmity 
was like his father, remarkably gifted in prayer. His famous 
long prayer in the First Church while his father was absent 
on the Louisburg campaign was found to have been coinci- 

13s 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 

dent with the battle. And was it an accident that in the 
midst of that long petition Joseph Moody's entreaties were 
turned to thanksgiving as though he saw the vidlory 
achieved ? 

The "Scotland" Church has had a long and useful history. 
Good men have occupied its pulpit — no less than fourteen 
pastors — and three others enrolled as "supplies" having 
served there. The name best known after that of Moody is 
Lankton. Father Lankton's memory is cherished by many 
who are his descendants living in this town and its vicinity. 
But it is because there has been a true "apostolic succession" 
in the ministry of these two historic churches that they still 
live and seek to glorify the name of Him who is their Lord 
and Master. 



136 



I3Q4 




013 995 8913 | 






iiilii 



liil: 



